ERIE — Several dozen Erie children are getting real-life training from the FBI — and helping the agency decide whether the program should be taken nationwide.

The five-day camp is designed to teach children about the need intelligence agencies have for specially trained researchers to organize and coordinate information. The 44 campers aged 11 to 16 will learn the basics of being knowledge technologists.

The youngsters will do a research project on a law enforcement or military agency and get a crash-course in fingerprinting techniques, as well as a lesson on Internet safety.

"These are a lot of underprivileged children," said Sheldon Williams, program director at the Boys and Girl Club of Erie. "They don't have a lot of opportunity to go to any kind of camp."