Middle school students from St. Charles Borromeo School in Destrehan, La. spent four days delving into engineering topics and creating projects to demonstrate those concepts as part of the ΟγΈΫΑωΊΟ²ΚΙϊΠ€ΊΕΒλ robotic eel camp.
βWeβre just trying to expose as many young people as possible to these concepts in engineering,β ΟγΈΫΑωΊΟ²ΚΙϊΠ€ΊΕΒλ engineering professor Brandon Taravella said. βSome of the concepts they may not be familiar with and we just try to show them some of the equipment we use and just some of the things we do.β
The "PrivatEEL STEM" camp, led by ΟγΈΫΑωΊΟ²ΚΙϊΠ€ΊΕΒλ's Boysie Bollinger School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, was funded by the Louisiana Board of Regents and held June 13-16.
The students spent the past week performing various STEM activities, such as building water bottle rockets, constructing and testing the strength of straw towers and printing 3-D balloon powered cars, Taravella said.
βWeβve been doing various things from 3-D modeling to robot design, robot building, computer programming,β Taravella said. βJust learning various concepts in naval architecture, civil engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering.β
The students were joined by three St. Charles Borromeo teachers. Taravella said the educators could use the camp experience to supplement activities in their classrooms and with the schoolβs STEM Club.
βThe idea is that they are kind of learning some of the things we do here and maybe that helps them explain things a little bit better in their classroom,β Taravella said. βAs well as learn a few new things for their lab experiences back in their classroom."
The students also toured ΟγΈΫΑωΊΟ²ΚΙϊΠ€ΊΕΒλβs engineering labs and, as a culminating project, created their own robotic eel.
Taravella is the recipient of several grants for his research into hydrodynamic propulsion that led to the creation of the robotic eel for use as an underwater drone, to search for mines and in data collection.
The camp culminated Thursday with students testing their own robotic eels in the Universityβs Recreation & Fitness Center pool.