One of our excellent George Mason High School interns, Camile Borja, asked to lead our new VEX IQ workshops as a continuation of our Spring 2017 creative robotics and IOT/SmartCities program.
Camile is an experienced builder, and she comfortably created the curriculum and environment for visiting 7th graders (and a 4th grader with a few adults) to explore this platform increasingly common in middle schools and high schools. Camile also embraced our emphasis on sensors-driven robotics supporting our IOT/SmartCities Thinkabit Lab initiatives. While driver-controlled robots (remote operated vehicles) are fun and the focus of regional competitions, the programming, computational thinking, logic-driven strategies, and sensor-actuator actions and data collection are arguably the most important outcomes in school-age robotics program in consideration of our future technical workforce.
These creative robotics programs are expected to be featured in all of our 2017 Summer Camps.
Exploring Technical Careers and College, Programming, Engineering Design, Creative Robotics, and all Hands-On STEM Education Strategies
Virginia Tech's DC Metro Area Thinkabit Lab STEM Education and Workforce Development Programs is the longest-serving collaborator in the Qualcomm Thinkabit Lab network. The mission of our Thinkabit Lab is to serve Washington, D.C. area students, teachers, administrators, parents, and collaborators in technical career exploration and the hands-on electronic and programming foundations of IOT and Smart Cities, AI and robotics automation, sensors, actuators, and data collection and analysis.
In doing so, we are preparing our future STEM workforce and our increasingly diverse, technology-driven community for jobs that may not yet exist. The VT-DC STEM Labs team will work with like-minded teams, organizations and individuals interested in promoting curiosity, innovation, creativity, and students’ self-actualization and self-determination.