Thirty students from Hernandez and Deerpark middle schools participated in Mission: Engineer the World camp on Saturday, November 5.
The camp, hosted at Hernandez, is an all day middle school camp, created by the Society of Women Engineers (UTSWE) at the University of Texas at Austin . The camp is designed to excite and educate students about engineering as well as build essential engineering skills such as creativity, curiosity, and independent thinking, according to the organization.
“Engineer the World camp was a great way to engage students in engineering,” said Hope Scallan, Round Rock ISD enrichment coordinator. “The sooner we can expose students to positive science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) experiences and mentors, the more likely they will be to choose a path toward a STEM career.”
During the camp, each group of students was given real-world engineering challenges that they must work together to solve and present a plan of action.
Hernandez and Deerpark are both focused on further enhancing STEM curriculum on their campuses. Hernandez plans to broaden STEM education on campus through its Tier III Innovative School Grant, awarded by Round Rock ISD to establish the school as an International Baccalaureate (IB) STEM campus.
“This year Hernandez is providing opportunities to motivate students with experiences that align to high school academy options such as the STEM academy and the IB diploma programme,” Hernandez IB Coordinator Desiree Le said. “The Society for Women Engineers provided Hernandez and Deerpark students a fantastic day of real world engineering challenges. Students were engaged in building structures, developing water filtration systems and disaster relief solutions.”
