A Middletown program is aiding the next generation of engineers. It needs funds to survive
MIDDLETOWN — Middletown is one of just 10 school districts in the country which have been piloting a STEM-focused summer camp for young kids for the past two years. With one year of funding left, however, program organizers have to make a case to town officials so they can continue running the program for years to come.
“We really want to see it last more than three years,” Program Director Shannon McWhorter said. “Part of our funding was for us to be sustainable after the three years, so we want to get our politicians aware of what’s going on, see what we’re doing in their state with their constituents and we want them to hopefully help us continue the program.”
STEMKAMP, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics for Kids of Active Military Personnel, is a five-day summer program designed to encourage young students’ interests in STEM fields. This is the second year of the three-year pilot for the program funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.
The upper estimate for Middletown to continue running STEMKAMP is $80,000 per year, McWhorter said, but some of the costs associated with staff compensation or other aspects of the program could lower that figure. She said the only issue is making sure those cost-saving measures don’t impact the program quality.
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On the last day of this year’s camp, organizers invited families and local officials to J.H. Gaudet Middle School for a showcase of the activities the kids engaged in during the week. Capt. James McIver of Naval Station Newport also came to talk to the students about the importance of STEM education. As a systems engineer, McIver said these kinds of programs are what got him interested in STEM when he was a kid.
“This is good to see because it shows our future is in good hands,” McIver said. “We have young minds that are being introduced to this stuff and encouraged to use this stuff, and while the experiments may seem very simple, they’re the building blocks for all the cool stuff we have today and all the cool stuff we don’t have that’s going to be discovered and created and developed tomorrow.”
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McIver joined state Sen. Louis DiPalma, Superintendent Rosemarie Kraeger and School Committee member Liana Ferriera-Fenton to follow a group of campers to different classrooms in Gaudet as they explained how they built and tested different projects based on the camp theme, “New Frontiers in Space.” In preparation for life on another planet, the kids learned what types of structures could better withstand greater amounts of pressure (an updated and themed version of the traditional “egg-drop test”), tested the chemical composition in soil to grow food and built and tested wind turbines to generate power for their base.
“Anything worthwhile doing takes an investment and this is the kind of investment we need,” DiPalma said. “We have engineers retiring in droves. The largest class of baby boomers were born in 1961, they’ll be 65 years in 2026, so I’m excited about the kids I see here today. If it inspires them to become a scientist, engineer, mathematician, technologist, it will have succeeded. If it just engages them in appreciating it, that will be successful as well.”
Mayflower Wind, which has a proposal to connect a planned 146 off-shore wind turbine farm to Somerset, Massachusetts, through cables that go through Portsmouth, also attended the event and set up a booth to educate camp participants and parents about off-short wind energy. Community Liaison Officer Kelsey Perry said the company is engaging in more community outreach to help people understand their proposal, which is set to be considered at the R.I. Energy Facility Siting Board on Aug. 18.
This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Middletown STEM summer camp makes case for continued funding
