Rhodes State College hosted a STEM Day for approximately 30 students at Tri-Star Career Complex. Students participated in a variety of competitions in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics areas.
Erik Robey, the STEM chair at Rhodes State College, believes, "It's very important to focus on STEM technologies, engineering, science technology, mathematics, and IT. As we move with new inventions, new equipment, everything's becoming very complicated and all those core fundamentals are now going in different directions."
Students were given challenges to complete. There was an electronic challenge, a robotics challenge, a tallest tower challenge, a bungee jump challenge, and a slot car challenge.
Rules for the competitions were sent out in advance. Students were able to begin initial designs at their career tech or high school. Rhodes State then supplied fundamental equipment for students. Other areas had students just show up and compete.
In the Slot Car Race Challenge, students designed, built, and raced slot car dragsters. Students were judged on design and a timed race. The students were provided with two motors and two contact ribbon cables. The rest was of their own design and build.
Eli Schmidt from St. Henry, who was competing in the slot car challenge explained, "It was a nice challenge. When I got here this thing (car) didn't move, but by the end I got the fastest time. It's just something that if you never give up you will get it right eventually. And that's what I really like about STEM."
In the Robotics Obstacle Course Challenge, students designed, built, and programmed a robot to navigate an obstacle course. Students could use either autonomous or remote controlled robots during the competition. Students wrote their own codes and built their programs at their home school.
In the robotics obstacle course Dylan Elking from St. Marys and Alex Puthoff from Minster had a similar experience. Dylan confessed, "Until this morning, we didn't actually get a running program." Alex shared, "Every time we ran it, we found something to needed to do better."
Stem Day hopes to encourage students to consider working in a STEM field. Erik Robey said, "There has been a cultural shift in the kind of employees we need. We need more employees that understand the STEM fields."
