9th Grade Work Based Learning

Job Shadow

I have always been interested in software and game development, ever since I played my first video game, which was Minecraft. I have always wondered how the games work on the inside, where most people never see. I wanted to pursue the field of game and software development, and I needed to do a job shadow where I learn more about this subject. Luckily for me, there was a perfect place for such an experience. The Air Force Research Lab’s GRILL, which stands for Gaming Research Integration for Learning Laboratory, has been dedicated to making games for educational and training purposes. In my eyes, if you can combine something fun, like gaming, with something that a lot of people struggle with, then I think you can be a lot more efficient and the students and/or trainees will be better of in the real world. I did my job shadow at the GRILL, and during this experience I learned how people integrate coding and programming with real life. I also learned how to make a game, and I made a game called AimTrain. AimTrain is a first-person shooter game about shooting a block that pops up in a random location when you shoot it. The goal of this software was to test reaction times and accuracy when under pressure, which are key skills for other areas of life. Overall, I think I had fun while still learning a lot from this experience, and I can’t wait to do this all again next year.