Published November 27, 2019
Any student with access to the Internet has
a world of information at their fingertips. Often
still in short supply, however, are the hands-on
experiences that give that information
meaning and relevance to life. When the New
Jersey Army National Guard’s Recruiting and
Retention Battalion developed a sleepaway
STEAM summer camp for students ages 13 to
17, this relevance was put front and center. The
result? Maximum engagement.
According to First Lieutenant Douglas Mattei,
who developed the concept for the 2019
camp with his team, the goal was to challenge
students to make connections between STEAM
concepts and careers in both the military and
civilian life – while also engaging them in fun,
hands-on activities. “We are capturing that
high school age demographic while exposing
them to STEM careers and maybe giving them
an idea of a path they would like to take,” he
explained.
As in previous STEAM offerings provided by
the New Jersey Army National Guard, Pitsco
educational products played a significant
role. What follows is just a sample of the fun
activities students partook in.
An air-powered rocketry competition served
as a fun way to explore mathematical concepts
such as trajectory, force, and fuel calculation.
Officers drew a connection between the
amount of air pumped into the student-created
rockets and the amount of combustible fuel
used in military rockets. “We explained that this
is a very math-heavy concept. It isn’t just fire
and forget,” said Mattei. “This is one of the most
devastating things on the battlefield, so you can’t be wrong.” Students worked in teams of
two to discover the right pressure and the right
angle to make their rocket hit the target.
The use of coding, video, and sensor technology
came into focus during an activity in which
students raced TETRIX® MAX robots through
a maze using only the video feed supplied by
cameras mounted on the robots. Students
programmed the robots themselves, after a crash
course in programming by Guard officers.
A fully assembled Mr. Robot showcased the
cool factor inherent in robotics. Students used remote control to pilot Mr. Robot forward, pick up a bag
of chips, and return with it. As Mattei recalled,
“The kids really enjoyed having a full-size robot
to drive around. It was less about picking up
the bag of chips and more about ‘Hey, check it
out! I’m driving this robot!’”
The A in STEAM came into play especially
in the Pitsco water rocketry activity, in which
students designed and decorated their rockets
– and in an activity exploring the importance
of unit heraldry in the military. In this activity,
students designed patches, which were then
made by graphic designer students from a
local college and actually used by the students
at the camp.
According to Mattei, the Pitsco products
were “spot on” in their ability to match
hands-on experiences to career relevancy. But
were the students engaged? He paraphrased
the persistent refrain he heard from students
during the camp: “I want to play. Give me stuff
to do. Put something in my hand. I don’t want
to talk about sniper rifles or mortar tubes. I
want to build a rocket. I want to build a race car
with a TETRIX MAX kit.”
In fact, this level of extreme engagement
even produced a slight problem, which the
battalion hopes to address next time around.
“Next year, we need to develop some better
control measures because the kids were having
so much fun with the activities. They were
getting loud. It was all kinds of crazy.
“But,” as Mattei adds with a smile, “that’s a
great problem to have.”