Photo: Dani Hessler, left, and Sara Maciejewski operate a robotic vehicle they programed so its headlights change color during the STEM Camp at Roane State’s Cumberland County campus.
October 19, 2021
By Bob Fowler
Roane State staff writer
Roane State’s Cumberland County campus was buzzing with high-tech experiments this summer as the community college hosted a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Camp for 32 middle school-aged students.
It marked the fifth summer that the Verizon Foundation has funded the three-week camp at the campus. This session had some new additions. It was previously for middle school girls only when it was launched in 2016, but several boys participated this time.
A.I., or Artificial Intelligence, and robotics were also added as topics, said Holly Hanson, director of Roane State’s campus in Crossville. She has overseen the STEM camp each summer.
When the first session was held, Roane State was the only community college in Tennessee to host the camp, launched by the foundation to encourage girls to consider STEM careers. This year’s event attracted youngsters from White, Fentress and Cumberland counties as well as residents from out of state who were visiting. Several home-schooled students participated.
“I like learning about all of the technology and how it works,” said Annabelle Payne, a homeschooled camper who used a computer and coding to create her animated version of the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale.
“Coding is easy once you get used to it,” said Maddy Young of the method of communicating with a computer. She is a seventh-grader at Crab Orchard Elementary. It was her second STEM Camp. The pandemic shuttered the planned session last summer.
Photo: Annabelle Payne uses a laptop and coding to create an animated version of the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale during STEM Camp at Roane State’s Cumberland County campus.
In another of the four Roane State classrooms used for camp sessions, Lillian Carrier, also a Crab Orchard Elementary student, proudly displayed the plastic box bearing her initials that she created using a 3D printer.
Across the hallway, Dani Hessler, a South Cumberland Elementary student, along with Crab Orchard Elementary camper Sara Maciejewski, programmed a special vehicle equipped with sensors. Each time the four-wheel-drive robot stopped on a colored square, its headlights matched the color.
“I’ve liked every class,” Sara said. “It’s so interesting.”
The camp also included a field trip, and participants were given breakfast and lunch. Campers are now honing their new skills in technology back on campus one Saturday each month for the next several months, Hanson said.
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