NEVADA, Iowa (AP) — A former Iowa fire academy administrator has been given two years’ probation for falsifying test scores that were used to improperly certify thousands of firefighters.

Former Fire Services Training Bureau certification manager John McPhee also was sentenced Wednesday in Story County District Court to a suspended prison sentence of five years. He was fined $750 and ordered to serve 100 hours of community service. He had pleaded guilty to felony misconduct in office after making a deal with prosecutors.

McPhee was arrested in January, when the Iowa Department of Public Safety announced that 1,706 firefighters and emergency personnel had been awarded nationally recognized certifications despite failing written exams. The total found eventually reached 2,445. Authorities say McPhee assigned passing scores to exams without checking or correcting them for years.

(OSKALOOSA, Iowa) – Would you like to expand your child’s computer literacy beyond playing games, writing stories, and browsing the Internet? Do you want your child to learn how math can be fun and directly related to computer graphics? William Penn University’s Computer Science Program is once again hosting two computer camp sessions on campus in June.

Session I of the WPU Computer Camp will be held Monday, June 19 – Friday, June 23 from 1:00–5:00 p.m. This session is geared towards learners who have completed grades 2 through 6. Parents and guardians may drop off children as early as 12:30 p.m. and pick them up as late as 5:30 p.m. each day.

Session I students will learn to create computer animations and simple games using the Scratch visual programming environment. Scratch is used to design projects which develop creativity, solve problems, and communicate ideas. One previous participant commented, “I loved learning how to plan and get the computer to do exactly what I wanted.”

Students attending Session I will also participate in hands-on activities with math and robots. Participants will be given a flash drive with software and other materials needed for the camp and for continuing their projects on their home computers. The cost for Session I is $75 per student.

Session II of the WPU Computer Camp is designed for students who have completed grades 7 & 8 or 6^th graders with a good working knowledge of Scratch.  Session II will be held Monday, June 26 – Friday, June 30 from 1:00–5:00 p.m. Again, parents and guardians may drop off children as early as 12:30 p.m. and pick them up as late as 5:30 p.m. each day.

This camp will teach children how to create mobile apps for android devices and make their own computing device using the BBC micro:bit microcontroller. MIT App Inventor is an innovative beginner’s introduction to programming and app creation. The simple graphical interface grants a novice the ability to create a basic, fully-functional app for an android phone or tablet in a couple of hours. The BBC micro:bit is a tiny, handheld programmable computer. It has small LED lights and motion sensors, and it can be hooked up to other devices through cables and Bluetooth technology. It can be used to do all sorts of things, like write words in lights or control musical instruments. The cost for Session II is $100 per student and students get to keep their microcontroller after the camp is over.

Individual learning will be guided by Professor Breanne Garrett, Professor Matt Slaymaker, Professor Steve Rittgers, Professor Judy Williams, and William Penn University students majoring in math and/or computer science in the Musco Technology Center Computer Lab, Room 104.

To register for camp, contact Hailey Brown at brownhe@wmpenn.edu. Registration ends Monday, June 12.

Story provided by Hailey Brown