STEM camp returns to ECU campus

Robotics is one of thousands of technologies categorized under “T” in STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics. For this year’s MIS STEM Camp, sponsored by the Department of Management Information Systems in East Carolina University’s College of Business, robotics was also a focus of the programming.

For two weeks in July, 17 middle school-aged girls from the Boys and Girls Club of the Coastal Plains descended on campus to build and code robots, create stories regarding robotics, tour ECU’s health sciences simulation lab that featured robotic patients, and possibly find their inner entrepreneur.

Campers learn how ECU’s College of Nursing is using manikins and technology to help train nursing students as part of the the university’s 2022 MIS STeM camp. (Photos by Cliff Hollis)

Twelve-year-old Esmeralda Delgado of Greenville attended this year’s STEM camp and took full advantage of the camp’s offerings.

“We built a website and robots out of Legos, which was very fun,” Delgado said.

The entrepreneurial side of Delgado showed at camp when she pitched a project that dealt with animal abuse. Her idea came from a recent rescue encounter with an eastern box turtle and her knowledge of what happens to animals in shelters. The MIS STEM Camp’s new focus on entrepreneurship allowed Delgado to flesh out her idea and pitch it.

Plus, the STEM camp already has Delgado thinking about her future.

“I would like to finish school and probably go to college and be a veterinarian,” Delgado said. “I want to go to ECU.”

Delgado’s current goal to attend college and the technology push she found while attending the MIS STEM camp was by design, said Dr. April Reed, COB associate professor and camp organizer. The technology focus of the camp fills a void that she feels is not being met in area high schools.

“They (campers) need to understand that most jobs will require some technology,” Reed said. “We took them to the College of Nursing to find out how it uses manikins and technology to help train nursing students. They were in awe as the manikins blinked and moved, and how the newborn baby manikins cried.”

This year’s MIS STEM Camp is the fourth in the past six years. Kathy Kiraly (ECU MBA ’89) previously attended and mentored several of the MIS STEM Camps. This year, she brought SAS CodeSnaps robots that introduced the campers to the basics of robotics and other aspects of technology, coding and programming.

“I’m hoping these girls see that technology is not scary; that science is not scary,” said Kiraly, a curriculum consultant at SAS. “I want them to think this is something I can do and that I can tell the computer I want the robot to navigate an obstacle course; I want it to change colors.”

“I think the big takeaway from this camp is that they (campers) have options,” she said.

Robotics was one of the many technologies that campers Esmeralda Delgado, left, and Samaria Paige learned about while attending the 2022 MIS STEM Camp.