Marines

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Ryan, a student at Quantico Middle/High School, solders a part on a blinking device he is building with the assistance of Dave McCarthy, an engineer from Marine Corps Systems Command, during the QMHS summer STEM academy.

Photo by Eve Baker

Quantico Middle/High School students participate in summer STEM camp

25 Jun 2015 | Eve A. Baker Marine Corps Base Quantico

Rising sixth, seventh, and eighth graders at Quantico Middle/High School had the unique opportunity to attend a science, technology, engineering, and math camp at the school from June 15-19 free of charge. According to Thomas Carroll, an engineer with Marine Corps Systems Command, approximately 55 students attended, and they were supported by “18 engineers from MCSC, 17 teachers from QMHS, two representatives from the College of William and Mary and student volunteers from QMHS.”

Warren Kimmerly, a STEM teacher at QMHS, said this is the 5th year the camp has run, and this year’s focus was on water-related projects. According to Kimmerly, students, “built a SeaPerch and a SeaFoil, did water filtration and analysis, learned about capillary action, learned fingerprinting techniques and how water affects fingerprints from the Stafford County Police Department and did a tower build.”

A SeaPerch is an underwater, remotely operated vehicle, said Carroll, and the student teams did all the work in building them, including soldering and wiring, under the direction of the engineers. The students learned about buoyancy, engineering and other concepts as they built working ROVs. The students tested the SeaPerches in a small pool behind the school by performing various tasks with the devices underwater.

Mike Ferraro, an engineer from MCSC, said the engineers all volunteered for the program, and the equipment came from Navy funding. The SeaPerch kits were provided by the United States Naval Academy. All the volunteers and teachers attended two days of training before the camp to learn the techniques and how to run the various projects.

The SeaFoil project involved building a boat out of simple materials after learning about boats and buoyancy, said Shearna Tolbert, the QMHS school psychologist and a STEM camp teacher. “The goal is to see how much weight your boat can hold,” Tolbert said.

QMHS student Madison said her team “made a bucket shape out of hanger wire, aluminum foil and duct tape.” Madison was part of a four-person team known as the Wreckers, and their boat held three pounds of weight. The other teams’ boats held between one and seven pounds, due to their differing design choices.

The students were teamed up in groups of three or four, and they started the camp by picking a team name and designing a poster. Team names included Techno Freaks, Team Abyss, STEM & M’s, Muu Moos, Liquid Potatoes and more.

Freshman Broden, 14, said that he likes science, and the SeaPerch project was his favorite part. “My team had really amazing drivers and did really well in all the challenges,” he said. Broden said he learned a lot about neutral, positive and negative buoyancy through that portion of the camp.

Sixth grader Katherine, 11, wanted to come to the camp, and said her parents didn’t have to make her. She said she had a really good time and “learned a lot about technology, science, math and engineering.” Her favorite part was also the SeaPerch project, especially getting to drive it, and she “would definitely come back next year.”

—Writer— ebaker@quanticosentryonline.com

 


Marine Corps Base Quantico