Diego Fierro, 13, hopes to be a mechanical engineer someday. And thanks to a LEGO Robotics: Space Challenge camp at the University of Colorado Boulder, Diego took one step closer to that dream this week.
鈥淚鈥檝e never built anything with LEGO Mindstorms before,鈥� Diego explained, as he programmed the robot鈥檚 next move. 鈥淚t鈥檚 cool because it gives me an idea of how a machine works, how every piece is important and has a job.鈥�
Diego was one of 30 middle school students from Skinner and Lake middle schools and Bryant Webster 鈥� an early childhood through eighth grade school 鈥� in Denver who built and programmed robots as part of CU-Boulder鈥檚 Science Discovery residential camp.
The summer camp is a partnership between听,听听and the Summer Academic Focused Education program, a nonprofit that provides hands-on experiences in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to middle school students in northwest Denver. These week-long camps focus on architecture, business and engineering and are held at CU-Boulder, UC Denver and the Colorado School of Mines.
鈥淢any low-income, first-generation students haven't had much exposure to STEM fields,鈥� said Ron Gallegos, who coordinates the northwest Denver summer program. 鈥淭hrough hands-on projects like programming robots, STEM becomes something they understand and as a result they might choose as a potential career.鈥�
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