Fairmont Area Schools

STEM students learn to build robots

MCT REGIONAL NEWS

By Jason Howerton

The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.

(MCT)

July 23--Trey Allison, a Notre Dame High School junior, has been taking things apart to figure out how they work for as long as he can remember -- since forever, as he put it.

So, building robots came naturally to him.

"I've always been interested in science and new technology," he said. "And I can build robots."

Allison, 16, has been working with 21 other students from different area schools at the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Robotics Summer Camp the past two weeks at the Robert H. Mollohan Research Building in Fairmont.

The two-week summer camp is a partnership between the Robert H. Mollohan Family Charitable Foundation, the JASON Project, NASA, WVU and the West Virginia High Technology Consortium Foundation. The camp aims to generate interest in robotics and innovative technology.

MCT REGIONAL NEWS

By Jason Howerton

The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.

(MCT)

July 23--Trey Allison, a Notre Dame High School junior, has been taking things apart to figure out how they work for as long as he can remember -- since forever, as he put it.

So, building robots came naturally to him.

"I've always been interested in science and new technology," he said. "And I can build robots."

Allison, 16, has been working with 21 other students from different area schools at the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Robotics Summer Camp the past two weeks at the Robert H. Mollohan Research Building in Fairmont.

The two-week summer camp is a partnership between the Robert H. Mollohan Family Charitable Foundation, the JASON Project, NASA, WVU and the West Virginia High Technology Consortium Foundation. The camp aims to generate interest in robotics and innovative technology.

"One of the primary missions of the camp is to promote science among our area youth," former Congressman Alan Mollohan said. "North-central West Virginia is beginning to successfully diversify its economy and interest in new technology is increasing." Mollohan said it was great to listen to the students talk about science and robotics so passionately during the camp.

The camp began on July 11 and wrapped up Friday as students presented each of their battery-powered robots, complete with functioning wheels and bodies made from cardboard. Students spent the entire second week of the camp making the robots.

Fairmont Area eyes ag program - FairmontSentinel.com | News ...

FAIRMONT - Fairmont Area Schools is considering adding a program that would help prepare students for careers in agriculture.

Superintendent Joe Brown met with city officials, local businessmen and FFA instructors Tuesday to consider if, how and when a program could be implemented.

"I think there is enough interest in our community," Brown said. "I think there is enough kid interest in the community."

Jeremy Daberkow, FFA instructor at Redwood Area Schools, told those in attendance how his school implemented an ag program from the ground up five years ago, after the school was without such a program for decades.

Martin County West FFA instructor Stephanie Wohlhuter discussed the types of classes she believes are important for a successful program.

Daberkow and Wohlhuter said that when it comes to ag programs there is not competition between schools, as the programs often work together.

"Ag departments in the state are all a family," Daberkow said. "We borrow a lot of ideas from each other."

Individual ag programs can have significant differences. Redwood Area focuses on animal sciences and farm mechanics repair, while Martin County West has a strong food science and food-processing curriculum.

Brown noted that Fairmont is not trying to compete with Martin County West.

"The goal is not to replication the good things in the MCW program," he said, noting the abundance of farm-related industry in Fairmont, including soybean processing, ethanol, food packaging and, of course, the pork industry.

Daberkow and Wohlhuter said many ag courses are usable for requirements in other departments, such as science; family and consumer science; and even economics.

Fairmont Area is just beginning to add an ag program, and Brown says discussions are going to continue.

"If we are going to do it, by golly, we are going to do it right," he said.

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