KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Kayla Desroches/KMXT
More than 50 middle schoolers recently finished a five-day course where they built and tested drones on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus, and three of the students were Kodiak kids.
The camp is part of the Alaska Native Science & Engineering Program, or ANSEP, which guides kids in the STEM track all the way from middle school into high school and through multiple higher degrees.
As ANSEP middle school regional director Audrey Alstrom explains it, they try to set a foundation early on which sets kids up for later success.
“Our pre-college programs focus on getting students excited and engaged and interested, putting their academics in the forefront so that hopefully they take the higher level in math and science courses before they get to college so they are academically prepared once they get to the college level.”
Kodiak local Shawn Case was a student at this year’s camp, and says they did everything from simulations to completing an obstacle course with their drones. He says the students worked in groups of three.
“We’d each take turns holding the drone, soldering, and putting the wire down while the metal was still melting and while one of us was working on the drone, another one of our partners would do the simulator.”
He says soldering was one of his favorite parts.
The drone week was the second of four middle school camps that focus on different STEM subjects. The first was health sciences, the third is marine biology, and the fourth is energy.
