EDUCATION
Jones County High School held the first summer STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) camp last June 26 through June 29. Student volunteers from the Technology Student Association helped made the camp a success. The participants were elementary, middle school, and incoming high school students who wanted to try their hands on robotics. The first day’s activities were problem solving activities. The children were challenged to build index card towers, plastic spoon catapults and straw rafts. Ms. Georgia Sanders wrote after the first day that her child “had a great time today! She talked more about her day today than she has in a while.”
The last three days were spent on robotics. The elementary student worked with Lego Mindstorm kits while the older students worked with VEX kits. After a day of building the robots, the participants were given the task to write the code for the robot.
The LEGO robots, like BattleBots, must push each other in the arena until one is out of the ring. The VEX robot had to pick a half-filled water bottle, travel, and place the bottle on a specified spot.
One whole day was spent on testing, revising, and retesting the code. During this process, the students exhibited good teamwork and problem-solving skills, and a lot of patience.
Witnessing their robots do what they were supposed to do gave them a sense of pride and accomplishment.
The students also tried their hand on 3D design and 3D printing. All in all, they experienced firsthand the daily activities of Engineering and Technology students in the high school. Kudos to all those who helped and supported us behind the scenes.
– Contributed
