"If a

student knows he is going to be out on a certain day, then he can view

the words that are going to be covered on that day so that he doesn't

get behind," says Pincombe.

Not only does

the software help students stay up-to-date on their vocabulary words,

but they can also utilize the program to search for specific words and

review previous words as well as quiz themselves through a matching game.

"You simply

select the words you want to review and the computer puts them up on one

side of the screen along with the definitions on the other side. You match

the definitions to the words and then the computer will tell you if your

matches are correct," Pincombe explains.

If a match

is incorrect, the computer identifies which ones are wrong so that the

student can revise his or her answers. Once all the answers are correct,

a message appears on the screen congratulating the student. Pincombe says

his next version of the software will enable students to keep score while

playing the game.

The development

of SAT Words Helper stemmed from a comment made by Booth reading teacher

Kathy Smith.

"I had

stated in class one day that I wished someone would come up with a way

to make presenting the curriculum more easy and less time-consuming,"

said Smith. "Roger said he would work on it, but I had no idea about

his background or that he would actually come up with something."

Pincombe has

been working with computers since he was two years old. He began learning

various programming languages when he was seven and has just recently

completed training in Visual Basic.

He owns his

own company called The Roger Database. Services offered include web site

creation, custom software design, computer games and general computing

help and troubleshooting.

It took Pincombe

about six weeks and 36 pages of code to develop SAT Words Helper. He has

already created version two of the program and is making plans to develop

version three.

"Roger

is a very intelligent young man. I won't be surprised if we hear about

him becoming a multi-billionaire someday," says Lyn Wenzel, principal

of Booth Middle.

Roger says

he does hope to become rich someday through his work with software development

and computers. He is planning a career as a computer programmer although

he said he would also enjoy working as a video game programmer.