By Taelor Rye
Students from Dodge County Middle School (DCMS) and teachers from Dodge County High School (DCHS) attended the Mercer University/Woodrow Wilson STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Camp at Mercer from June 15 through June 19th and were recognized at the Dodge County Board of Education meeting on July 9 as part of the board’s Examples of Excellence.
A week prior to the camp, DCHS science teachers Dana Niblett, Scarlett Selph and Miranda Simmons partook in a robotics workshop at Mercer.
At the STEM camp, students Mark Lucas, Aliyah Durham, JaColby Mizell, Jordan Morgan, Glenn Peacock and Emily Roddenberry participated in activities related to STEM, including building bridges with toothpicks, racing robotic cars, learning about micro-controllers and observing the sun through a solar telescope.
These students submitted applications to the camp that were reviewed anonymously, and they were chosen to participate based on their applications.
Dodge County superintendent Dr. Melinda Dennis visited Mercer during the camp and said that she “was amazed at some of the things that these kids were doing… It was a pretty awesome opportunity that our students got to enjoy.”
Dr. Sharon Murphy Augustine, associate professor of education and Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship program director at Mercer University, said, “We had a saying in STEM Camp that we wanted students to push themselves to ‘their optimal levels of confusion’ because that is where innovation and learning happens. These Dodge County students accomplished this balance by showing a great deal of intellectual curiosity, collaboration and persistence. They were great representatives of what Middle Georgia students can do.”
Dr. Lawanda Gillis, Dodge’s Director of Curriculum and Professional Development, informed parents that the staff members at the camp “were most complimentary of our students… You have a lot to be proud of. We have a lot to be proud of.”
Emily Roddenberry and a student representative from another school earned first place in the bridge-building exercise, which determined a bridge’s efficiency, given its own mass with respect to the weight that it could hold.
Glenn Peacock’s team was awarded second place in the robotic car activity, which tested the force of one car against another in a given timeframe. This competition was based on how far one car could push its opponent upon impact.