STEM Students Showcase Innovation, Intellectual Curiosity In USU Summer Program
The Uniformed Services University's Graduate School of Nursing hosts a four-week camp for STEM students
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Middle school students from around the D.C. area recently took part in the Verizon Innovative Learning STEM Achievers program, a four-week-camp hosted by USU's Graduate School of Nursing. Here, a student examines a project geared toward helping persons with disabilities using a virtual reality headset. (Photo credit: Ian Neligh, USU) |
July 27, 2023 by Ian Neligh
With a large virtual reality headset clamped over his eyes, the middle schooler looked around, grinning at the science project presented before him by his fellow students.
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GSN assistant dean for student affairs, and STEM program PI, Dr. James Maiden says it is important to introduce students to what can be done with STEM, not necessarily just from the engineering perspective, but as nurses and medical doctors. (Photo credit: Tom Balfour, USU) |
The students presented their projects to the public, proudly showcasing a host of creative ways to help persons with disabilities with their movement, as well as visual and hearing impairments, during a poster session and “graduation” on July 14.
Presentations offered up a variety of robotic arms, legs and a litany of other clever solutions.
“The past couple of weeks have been full of excitement and enthusiasm for all of our young scientists who have been participating in the STEM program,” said USU president Dr. Jonathan Woodson during the STEM graduation ceremony. “You are our future, so it was great to see you here.”
The goal of the program is to provide students from under-resourced communities with the chance to learn about careers in STEM fields, while also offering opportunities to get hands-on experience and learning through augmented reality, 3D printing, and mentoring.
GSN Assistant Dean for Student Affairs Dr. James Maiden, the STEM program principal investigator, brought the camp to the university after successfully applying for a $150,000 Verizon Foundation grant. Maiden, who did something similar at a former position with the University of the District of Columbia, said the camp will resume briefly in the fall as students get another opportunity to check in with their STEM mentors.
“We feel that by reaching them at this point, we are giving them skills and tools to go on and to find careers within the STEM industry in the future,” Maiden says. “Our students engage in 3D modeling, 3D printing, in augmented reality and virtual reality. They do electronics and there’s an entrepreneurship component to it.”
Maiden says the focus of this year’s camp was to figure out how to use STEM to assist individuals with physical impairments.
“So throughout the summer, students have been working on projects to come up with a solution, and their solution could be focused on individuals with hearing impairment or individuals with physical limb impairment,” Maiden says. “They have come up with prototypes using 3D modeling and printing to find a solution for someone who may have some type of physical impairment.”
Maiden adds it was important to introduce the students to what can be done with STEM, not necessarily just from the engineering perspective, but as nurses, physicians, and anything that could be done in the healthcare field that might spark their interest.
Students also engaged in a Shark Tank-like activity where they created a prototype and spoke about the build cost and learned about marketing their product. They also went to the USU Val G. Hemming Simulation Center to get a deeper understanding of someone who has an injury, learn how to check for a pulse, and clear airways.
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USU president Dr. Jonathan Woodson and Dr. Carol Romano, dean of the GSN, listen during the STEM graduation ceremony on July 14. The camp provides students from under-resourced communities with the chance to learn about careers in STEM fields. (Photo credit: Ian Neligh, USU) |
Maiden says that when the students come back for the fall session they will get another opportunity to check in with their STEM mentors. Maiden, himself a mentor for the program, says that his work with this program is really about giving back.
“For me personally,” Maiden explains, “it’s a way to kind of give back to the community and try to reach as many students as I possibly can.”
Speaking to the parents at the closing ceremony, Woodson said their role in fostering the interest of children in STEM is extraordinarily important, not only to their development and their potential in the future, but also to the country.
“We need more individuals who participate in STEM and STEM careers — so thank you for what you do in support of your children and their development of intellectual curiosity and quest for knowledge,” Woodson said. “You should be extraordinarily proud of them and what they’ve accomplished.”
Dr. Carol Romano, GSN dean, thanked the students for all of the hard work they put into the four weeks of the STEM camp.
“… I hope you learned a lot, I hope that you made some good friends and new acquaintances and … equally importantly, I hope you had a lot of fun,” Romano said. “Our intent for this program is really to help prepare you for high school, college and beyond, and hopefully careers in science and healthcare.”
Romano said STEM is not just about technical knowledge but includes collaborating, creating new things and working with other people to solve problems. She noted among the student projects were solutions for swimming and identifying a fire alarm for individuals with disabilities.
“I was just really impressed and humbled and I think the future is really good and secure with all of your creativity,” Romano said.
