| ACCD
News & Events
NVC
Launches Summer Camp to Promote Science Among San
Antonio Youth
For
Immediate Release
September
20, 2006
Contact:
Maureen Smith, Public Information Officer, Northwest
Vista College
210-348-2011
msmith@accd.edu
As the space shuttle Discovery returned to earth on
July 17, San Antonio youth geared up for the second
week of space camp at Northwest Vista College.
This summer,
the college launched the spaceTEAMS camp, a fun and
interactive hands-on experience for children in grades
4-8 to design and build robots. Developed through
a grant from the City of San Antonio, and in collaboration
with Edgewood ISD and the Schriever Institute, the
program addresses the education, workforce and economic
development needs of San Antonio youth who come from
low-income families. The program specifically targets
female students who are traditionally underrepresented
in the fields of science, technology, engineering
and math.
“As
children learn to design, build and program robots,
we hope they will become interested in careers in
science, technology, engineering and math,”
says NVC Director of Alternative Programs Colleen
Smith Arrey. “The goal of spaceTEAMS is to give
children hands-on experiences that allow them to see
themselves as engineers and scientists and help them
develop an education plan that will take them there.
We need these children to help build the future technology
workforce of San Antonio.”
On the
final day of camp, students demonstrated their newfound
programming and engineering skills by participating
in a competition. The middle schoolers used interactive
C-programming language and wrote the code to enable
the robots to perform a variety of high-level functions.
The spaceTEAMS
program served about 100 students, with 20 teams consisting
of five students each, along with teachers, mentors,
volunteers and career speakers. Northwest Vista College
hopes to obtain grant funding in order to hold additional
camp sessions in the future.
The program,
which ran from July 10-21, was featured on KENS-5
and KABB FOX TV News.
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