KINGSVILLE (June 18, 2024) — The Frank H. Dotterweich College of Engineering at Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK) hosted 6th – 12th grade students from South Texas last week for the Young Engineers of South Texas (YESTx) summer camp.
The five-day camp was held June 10-14 and is designed to introduce students to various Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.
Overviews of STEM field featured a look into subjects such as lab safety, 3D printing, robotics, shading and surveying. They also met with representatives from the college of engineering.
“The camp went as great as it could whenever you get a group of middle and high schoolers together and let them make a lot of decisions on their own,” Civil and Architectural Engineering department chair Dr. Breanna M. Bailey said. “They got to meet someone from each of our six departments in the college of engineering and learned a little bit about what we do in our STEM-related majors.”
While educational and informative, the camp also entertained campers with group project competitions that required them to build objects with items provided by the camp.
The projects included solid cylinders that would be put to the test under a press, a wood tower that would take an earthquake test and a cardboard canoe which was tested in the Steinke Physical Education Center’s (SPEC) heated swimming pool.
“We try to balance being very serious and technical with also being really fun,” Bailey said. “The students have been very engaged and have worked very hard. We had an amazing group of chaperones, a lab tech, lab assistant and lots of support to make it happen.”
There is still an opportunity for South Texas kids to experience the YESTx camp as the college of engineering will be holding another five-day camp June 24-28.
“I want the students to have a desire to continue to learn more about STEM careers and fields,” Bailey said. “If we can get them excited and show them something that piques their interest and they want to learn more, then they are going to stick to their science and their math as they go through school. They’re going to think about engineering, computer science and technology in the future. That’s what we want. We want more STEM workers for the U.S. and of course anything we can do to keep the kids excited and engaged.”
-TAMUK-