Wayzata Students Combine Technology, Sports in AI Project

By: Kane Moscoe, special to CCX Media

Students in a Wayzata High School class recently combined technology and athletics during a two-day scouting combine. Students used the software Gemini Canvas to create apps that tracked their classmates’ performances during athletic drills outside and in the gym.

Teacher Riley Davis created the project to teach students about vibe coding, a process that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help create software through written instructions.

Davis says the project gave students a chance to connect software development with athletics through a fun, hands-on experience.

Wayzata Students Learn Prompt Engineering

Before building their apps, students learned about prompt engineering, the process of writing and refining instructions for AI chatbots. They used a template to break down the process and uploaded it to Gemini Canvas to guide their app development. Students had to explain what they wanted their apps to do and adjust their prompts when the AI did not produce the expected results.

The combine featured a variety of activities, including running drills like the 40-yard dash and the 5-10-5 drill, soccer shooting and rondo drills, pickleball skills, basketball shooting, and softball hitting. Students designed apps to track their classmates’ performances and participation in the different activities.

Students learn “vibe coding” by using AI to track their fellow students’ performance in a variety of drills. (Photo by Riley Davis)

Sophomore Andrew Jenson created a basketball app designed to track how many layups students made. He said one of the most challenging parts was changing the types of layups the app tracked. Gemini did not always follow his instructions and sometimes deleted his progress, so he had to revise his prompts and try again.

The class will continue exploring these connections through upcoming projects. Students are preparing to use Canva AI to create a hype-video clip featuring a professional female athlete. Another planned project will focus on creating a professional women’s sports team, further exploring the connections between AI, business, and sports.

This story is part of a CCX Media partnership with local high school journalism students, providing hands-on reporting experience, professional mentorship and opportunities to share their stories with a broader community audience.