Camp encourages STEM school, career prospects

While many sixth through eighth grade students are enjoying their summer away from school, students attending the ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp have already begun thinking about their college and career experiences and improving sustainability.

This is the second year IU has been involved in the organization of the camp, whose theme is “Understanding Sustainability from the Ground Up: The World of Water.”

Fifty-three students were selected from different countries to attend the camp from July 11 to 23 with the goal of teaching minority and underrepresented middle school students math and science skills to introduce them to science careers.

During the camp, the students live in an IU residence hall and attend classes focused on natural science, technology, engineering and math.

Quinlan Doolin, a participant entering the sixth grade, said the science camp is an experience that has opened her eyes to the science fields. In the future, she said she dreams of being a chemist or architect.

“There is a lot to process,” she said. “We learn about colonizing space, career choices and how to treat the world better.”

Rene Flores, national director of the science camp, said it aims to inspire the students and provide them the experience of living and working like college students.

In his speech, Flores brought a message from Bernard Harris, saying he knows how difficult it is to earn good grades in school and be called nerdy by peers for loving science or math.

However, Harris asked that the students be confident and look straight into the eyes of their intimidators and say, “One day you will be working for me.”

Edwin Marshall, vice president for Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs at IU, said the camp helps the students envision where they want to be in the future.

“In order to address diversity, it is important to start early and make (people) aware of the opportunities for youth at IU,” Marshall said. “We want to plant a seed and nurture the seed so that it ultimately grows within the students.”

On Media Day, students were divided into groups of four or five and were introduced to the Raft Rally experiment, “Escape from Harris Island.” Each group was given four plastic straws and two pieces of aluminum foil to make a raft within 15 minutes. The winner was determined by the number of pennies their “raft” could carry.

One group at a time, team members put their raft in a tub of water and slowly placed
pennies on it. In the end, Team Awesome won with 236 pennies.

Team Awesome member Kennedy Douglas said, “We paid close attention to the way of placing pennies and crossed placing the straws.”