Not a lot of summer camp programs come with robotic arms that can stack little cubes on a table.
They also might not come with robotic dogs that can roll over and beg, or a little robotic man that rocks out to the epic saxophone solo from the song “Run Away.”
Pretty normal for Berkeley County School District’s annual Full STEM Ahead program, though.
This week, rising seventh through ninth grade students have participated in the camp at Berkeley Middle. This program is led by BCSD’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) office and is made possible with a grant by Bosch. CTE coordinators Lori Cox and Natalie Moultrie, and CTE Director Sonya Addison-Stewart are the lead organizers. Teachers from around the district help lead the camp activities as well. VIEW PHOTOS.
The camp is focused on getting students excited about STEM education through a series of interactive, hands-on activities. STEM lessons center on students using their science, technology, engineering and math skills to think critically and creatively to solve problems.
Cox said this is a great age group to target for STEM education as these students are getting closer to thinking about what careers they want to explore after high school.
“We really like to give them an idea of what high school has to offer as far as Career and Technical Education goes,” she said.
Each day of the week this week is centered around a different focus area. Monday was very engineering/earth/science-focused; students worked in groups to construct bridges using toothpicks and Dots candy. They also received a lesson involving first aid kits, and talked about ecosystems as they participated in a terrarium activity as well as a catapult challenge.
Tuesday was a very techy day as students rotated through different stations with activities provided by the district’s tech mobile, called the iTow truck, which is packed from floor to ceiling, wall to wall, with the latest and greatest of instructional technology tools that make students eager to learn.
The robotics arms activity was led by Gateway to Technology teacher Jeannette Hartstein, who showed students how to use laptops to “tell” the robotic arms what to do. The arms moved in a similar fashion to cranes, and had little suction cups at the end used to pick and stack tiny little cubes.
“It really just takes you getting used to it, right?” Hartstein asked the students while they operated the arms. She also encouraged the students to put their fingers under the suction cups so they could feel what was described as a “little vacuum” used to collect the cubes – a few students tried this out and said they could feel it.
In other stations, students worked with other teachers to learn about coding programs and operated Ozobots, among other computer-related activities. They also got to control robot dogs and check out the little dancing robot.
The schedule for Wednesday included a special field trip to Santee Cooper Water Plant and learn about clean water systems. On Thursday, students will wrap up this year’s program with some technical education activities.
