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News: Students inspired by Verizon Innovative Learning STEM camp at Roane State

Adesina Davis, 12, a student at Homestead Elementary in Cumberland County, prepares to remove a model of the Eiffel Tower from a 3D printer used during STEM Camp at Roane State’s Cumberland County campus

Aug. 16, 2018

By Bob Fowler
Roane State staff writer

CROSSVILLE, Tenn. – Brooke Parsons, 14, a Cumberland County High School student, used an electronics kit to code the “Harry Potter” theme song so it can play on a computer.

Adesina Davis, 12, who goes to Homestead Elementary in Cumberland County, made a model of the Eiffel Tower on a 3-D printer.

Those were just two of many forays into the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) world that some 50 young girls took during a three-week camp at Roane State’s Cumberland County campus.

The free event, sponsored by the Verizon Foundation, wrapped up in late July, and the Cumberland County campus will again be hosting the camp next year, said Holly Hanson, campus director.

While the foundation sponsors the camp at 16 community colleges, Roane State is the only community college in Tennessee to host it, Hanson said.

The camp is an initiative titled the Verizon Innovative Learning program for girls in middle schools. Now, only 12 percent of engineers and 22 percent of computer professionals are women.

“We want our girls to have the right tools to pursue all the opportunities available in STEM,” according to a statement from the telecommunication giant’s foundation.

Subjects for the girls included 3D printing, augmented reality, virtual reality, design thinking and electronics. The electronics kit for coding was a new part of the camp.

“Adding electronics had a big impact because the girls enjoyed getting feedback and making noises,” Hanson said.

Electronics and coding were new additions to the Verizon Foundation’s STEM camp, held at Roane State’s Cumberland County campus. Kim Smith, standing, a teacher at Martin Elementary in Cumberland County, watches as campers Brooke Parsons, left, and Abby Vanlandingham, sort through an electronics kit.

Campers were also treated to breakfasts and lunches, along with field trips to the Adventure Science Center in Nashville, Tennessee Tech in Cookeville, and the Cumberland Medical Center in Crossville.

The STEM Camp was launched last year as a pilot program and was deemed a great success.

Campers this year agreed. “I liked meeting new people and making circuits and stuff,” said Madison Sexton, 12, a student at North Cumberland Elementary.

“I liked the field trips and learning about careers that other people have,” Adesina Davis said.

“I liked pretty much everything,” said Cumberland Elementary student Abby Vanlandingham. “I also enjoyed meeting many different kinds of people.”

Dr. Krystal Kennedy, a Tennessee Tech educator who helped in the STEM Camp at Roane State’s Cumberland County campus, shows how an augmented reality device works when used as an overlay on business cards created by campers.

“I feel like the girls have gained an interest and abilities in the STEM area,” said Dr. Krystal Kennedy, a Tennessee Tech professor who helped with the camp.

The girls became familiar with “the technology and information that they otherwise would not have been exposed to,” she said.

Campers with good attendance who continue to meet one Saturday a month during the school year to review their STEM Camp goals will get to keep their Verizon-issued computer tablets.​

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