Students engage in STEM at summer program

Students controlling and battling robots that they built and programmedA group of Schuylerville Middle School students is spending the summer learning new science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills as part of the popular Summer Technology Enrichment Program. More than a dozen students took part in the program which was held throughout the month of July. Throughout three sessions, the program introduced various technology-related modules using hands-on activities.

“Technology really excites me,” said eighth-grader Alex Lanfear. “I knew we would be learning about programming and coding, but I never thought it would be this much fun.”

Lanfear said her favorite part about the program was building VEX robots, programming them and then going head-to-head against her classmates’ robots.

“It’s exciting for students to see designs and projects come to life over the course of a couple days” technology teacher Mark Belden said. “The students built everything. It was hard not to intervene at first, but it was great watching them problem solve and work together.”

As part of the program, students also designed and built objects using a 3-D printer and learned how to write code.

“When we started the unit on coding, I found myself wanting to learn more,” said eighth-grader Liam Claus. “I’m excited to use the program at home to try different things after tech camp ends.”