Drone racing, aquatic robotics: STEM games stir passions and career paths for BPS students
Fun, science — and career — were the words of the day at the Brevard Public Schools 2022 Innovation Games.
The series of science, technology, engineering and math games for Brevard students in grades 4 through 12, held Friday at Satellite High School, were designed to capture the passions and interests of STEM-minded students.
Sponsored by Northrop Grumman, Jacobs and L3Harris, among others, organizers and volunteers hoped it might also inspire their futures.
"Certain things you would never even fathom. I think it just opens their eyes to all of the different career paths you can travel down," said Erin Rice, a gifted student teacher at Audubon and Tropical elementary schools. "That's exciting for fourth and fifth graders."
A pair of Rice's students from Audubon had just swept their bracket in the Junior Solar Sprint, put on by the University of Central Florida's Florida Solar Energy Center and the Army Educational Outreach Program, in which contestants build and race their own miniature solar-powered derby cars.
It was one of more than a half dozen events Friday, which also included drone racing, underwater robotics, software coding, esports, and even a "Shark Tank"-esque competition where students pitched their ideas for inventions to a panel of judges.
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Over at the pool, Pierson Mast, Caiden Sivak and Justin Smith maneuvered their homemade submersible robot through an underwater obstacle course, struggling against a busted motor.
The three Satellite High seniors — collectively, Team Titanic — were frustrated when the part burned out just before the competition. Still, Mast said, "we did surprisingly well."
The SeaPerch Challenge, designed by the international SeaPerch school robotics program, sees students building their own aquatic robots and pitting them against each other in a series of real world-inspired trials.
"There's a lot of STEM classes, like physics and calculus and all that, but there's not a lot of hands-on stuff that we could actually apply that to," Sivak said. "With this, you get to have fun and apply those things."
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Lori and Roger Hickman of Rising Star Leadership Development said they helped bring the SeaPerch competition to Brevard County to inspire students to apply their knowledge outside the classroom — and even consider STEM careers, right in their own backyard.
"We're trying to help Brevard County, the Space Coast, continue up with our own pipeline" of students into local tech industries, Roger Hickman said.
Students have really taken to the competition, Lori Hickman said, which has grown to include 37 teams across the county from elementary to high school.
"They love it, using their hands. They learn how to solder. They drill. They use all the tools in preparing and putting the SeaPerch together," she said. "It's just amazing."
Across campus, Rockledge High School senior Stephen Gentile was among a group of students milling about a series of monitors in the media center, taking turns at a popular hybrid driving/soccer video game called Rocket League.
Gentile and the others are no mere gamers, said his coach, Aaron LeBlanc. They're athletes, of sorts. And these aren't just video games: they're esports.
LeBlanc is the coach for the Rockledge High esports (pronounced "ee-sports") team, and he's as tough as any you'll find in more traditional school sports like football or soccer.
"Our tryouts are incredibly rigorous. They take a month long. Three days a week, you must come to practice to train. It's very serious," LeBlanc said. "We have practices, tryouts, scrimmages. It's just like any other sport."
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Esports is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, and one of the fastest expanding extracurricular activities in schools across the country.
While athletes in other sports train things like strength and speed, esports athletes train to improve problem-solving, reflexes and hand-eye coordination. Just like with other sports, good players can earn college scholarships.
And, also like other sports, it can inspire further career interests, LeBlanc said.
"Similar to how someone in soccer or football may go into something related like sports management or physical therapy," he said. "The video games are a pull to get them interested in STEM, and some of them go on to STEM careers."
Gentile said he wanted to go into the biomedical field when he graduates college. He's hoping to attend Princeton University next fall — and possibly join their esports team when he gets there.
"I've always played video games," he said. "It's always been a part of me, so I'm just very passionate about it."
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Nora McFarland wrangled a group of fourth and fifth-graders from Satellite High's auditorium. Normally she's executive director of the Brevard Children's Business Fair; today, she was just chaperoning.
Walking across campus, she gestured at the events in progress. People shouldn't be fooled by the fun and flash, she said.
"People can say, 'Oh, they're just messing around,' but they're not," McFarland said. "It really picks the kids' brains, on robotics, engineering, math."
"It's real work, disguised as fun," she said.
Eric Rogers is a watchdog reporter for FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Rogers at 321-242-3717 or esrogers@floridatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter: @EricRogersFT.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Underwater robots? Racing drones? STEM games inspire Brevard students