THUNDER BAY — Local students had a chance to experience a one-day camp and learn more about science, technology, engineering, and math.
Chelsey Johnson, the communications manager at Ontario First Nations Technical Services Corporation, provided information about the one-day STEM camp that took place at the Delta Hotel on Tuesday.
"What we're trying to do today is to promote careers that are in those STEM fields amongst Indigenous youth, because a lot of our communities need more people in those fields to help the community and (help) with long-term sustainability."
She noted there were about 10 students attending the free camp, who were all from the city.
Johnson said some of the workshops that students participated in included real-world aspects.
"We had a groundwater monitoring workshop where students were able to actually see a physical model of how the groundwater will interact with different types of pollutants that are in the ground and how far down you have to dig wells, and how the contamination can seep into the water bed."
There were also presentations about mining and geodes, as well as a workshop from Science North.
David Bates is the STEM specialist in Science North's Indigenous Initiatives program.
He led the students in a robot battle where students got a crash course on how to code the robot quickly and then had to battle it out for supremacy.
"The idea is students build a little miniature user interface for controlling robots. They control the speed, [how] the different motors work and then they add a small pin to the end of it."
Bates added that students will try and pop the other robot's balloons in the battle.
"They try to control the robot with their control scheme and realize that some things that seem like a good idea are actually not a great idea at all, and they change their control scheme up and then try to pop balloons, and it's a great time.
"I have a corny saying where if you control the robots, you control the future."
The small group of students also took part in a garden tour that explored and explained the medicinal value of different plants and flowers.
Katie Nicholls is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter with Newswatch
