JBU hosts another successful engineering summer camp for high school students
This year’s fourth annual summer engineering camp hosted by John Brown University came to an end last Friday, where a diverse group of high school students spent the week exploring what the field has to offer.
The week’s events concluded with a competition in which different groups of campers competed against one another to develop and showcase their best work. An awards ceremony followed to recognize those who placed in the top three. Examples of activities that took place during the camp primarily included educating the students about an array of topics, including motors, batteries, 3D printers, electrical circuits, smart materials, programming and much more, according to the JBU website.
Throughout the week, the focus was to afford campers
the opportunity to engage in engineering related activities in a more hands-on way than they would typically be able to in a high school environment, said associate professor of engineering Ted Song, who helped lead the camp. For prospective engineering students, having this hands-on experience is important, particularly for younger students because it can help them discern whether the field is truly of interest to them. Aside from this, Song cited some other reasons for holding the camp.
“The demand is so high right now in the workforce for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, and so the goal for JBU, and myself, is to encourage these students to be motivated,” Song said. “As people get older, they tend to have less motivation for seeking out new interests, so I think for high school students to stay on a college campus for one week and for them to be in that environment can help them to get motivated, develop goals and ultimately pursue their dreams.
“This is also a great opportunity (for them) to see the value of Christian education
T he demand is so high right now in the workforce for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, and so the goal for JBU, and myself, is to encourage these students to be motivated. As people get older, they tend to have less motivation for seeking out new interests, so I think for high school students to stay on a college campus for one week and for them to be in that environment can help them to get motivated, develop goals and ultimately pursue their dreams. Ted Song JBU associate professor of engineering
and the difference between studying engineering in a public institution and a Christian institution, which is great because we have had kids in the past come to the camp and then ended up coming to JBU as students.”
In addition to Song, the camp was also led by mechanical engineering instructor Juan Carlos Rodriguez. Overall attendance for the week consisted of 34 students from seven states as well as one from Kenya, and camp staff also had to turn down 15 applicants due to limited resources and equipment. While campers who lived in the area had the option of either going home at the end of each day or to stay in dormitories on JBU’s campus, those from out of state all stayed in the dormitories.