The American Museum of the Moving Image recently showed some serious animations and video games created by young participants of an after-school program. NY1's Technology reporter Adam Balkin filed the following report.

The American Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens recently had a screening of stop-motion animations and video games created by children. The students learned the high-tech skills needed for the projects at the museum's after-school program.

"All of these kids are working with computers, camera equipment, software," says Chris Wisniewski of American Museum of the Moving Image. "This program actually cuts across disciplines actually, so they have to their math skills, technology skills and their English language art skills. We're teaching them process and we're giving them an opportunity to tell a story, to express themselves."

The students were given no guidelines about what types of animations or games to make. They were just given the tools, taught how to use them, and then set free to create.

"It's fun because I can get to use the computers and stuff and you can draw and you can make anything you want," says sixth-grader Rebecca Hernandez.

"It was a lot of fun because it took a lot of time and patience because it's just picture by picture but eventually it came out really nice," says sixth-grader Michael Szydelko. "The magic animation -- I'm a magician and I tap a wand and I appear and stuff with a lot of fog and stuff. It was a lot of fun because it took a lot of time and patience, because it's just picture by picture, but eventually it came out really nice."

Perhaps the only people more wowed by the final products than the students themselves are the adults helping to support the program.

"We were playing Atari Pong and these kids are designing the games nowadays," said Queens Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. "When you see these animations, it'll be stuff we used to watch on TV and now they can do it. It's amazing."

Many of the students say they are now considering a career in video game design or animation, even though they now watch TV and have a better appreciation for how difficult those jobs can be.

"I'm trying to compare these cartoons to what we make and I'm thinking 'Wow, they must put months into these things,'" says eighth-grader Christopher Kelly.

NY1's parent company, Time Warner Cable is promoting through its "Connect A Million Minds" initiative similar programs designed to highlight education through science, technology, engineering and math. To learn more about programs happening in your neighborhood, visit ConnectAMillionMinds.com.