Photo By Emily Casavant | (HAMPTON, VA) Hull Technician 1st Class, Daphny Davila, volunteers with Mid-Atlantic...... read more read more
HAMPTON, Va. - Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center’s (MARMC) STEM team hosted a Science Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) exhibit during Joint Base Langley-Eustis’s (JBLE) “Air Power Over Hampton Roads” event May 5-7.
The event, which includes static displays, food and activities, is a three-day long air show with the first day being a STEM day reserved for Hampton Roads area students and JBLE families.
“We are a military environment and every military environment has a lot of engineering elements in it,” said Arvin Persaud, coordinator for MARMC’s STEM team and a mechanical engineering technician in MARMC’s Production Research and Planning Division. “The kids of Hampton road’s parents are part of that environment so, with this, they can see what their own future may look like.”
The goal of STEM programs is to motivate and inspire young people to generate new technologies and ideas. The MARMC STEM team spends over 250 days a year traveling to schools, competitions and hosting STEM events in the Hampton Roads area.
“Playing with the robots was cool when I was a kid, and once I actually got into it, it was more than that,” said Ivy Bonham, a sophomore at Maury High School in Norfolk and MARMC’s youngest STEM team member. “It’s fun and it’s a learning experience where we get to do a lot of new things.”
Earlier this year, MARMC’s STEM students won the Gold Award for robotics following their participation in STEM competitions. This recognition earned MARMC’s STEM team an invitation to set up an exhibit during JBLE’s air show- a first in the history of the event.
“My favorite part of this is seeing the excitement on kid’s faces when they see some new technology,” said Persaud. “Sometimes they ask questions that, as adults, we may not even think about.”
This year’s “Air Power Over Hampton Roads” STEM day welcomed 22,000 students from over 40 schools and 30 homeschools. The next two days of the event were open to the public with continued participation from the STEM teams.
“This is important because it gives younger kids new experiences,” said Bonham. “They get to do stuff they wouldn’t get to normally do like soldering or drilling or putting things together.”
“The program is going to spark something in these kids,” said Persaud. “Kids like playing video games. We are going to teach them to make their own controllers.”
To volunteer on MARMC’s STEM team or request them to come to your school, contact Arvin Persaud at Arvin.v.persaud.civ@us.navy.mil
MARMC, a field activity under Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), provides surface ship maintenance, management and oversight of private sector maintenance and fleet technical assistance to ships in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.
| Date Taken: | 05.12.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 05.12.2023 11:23 |
| Story ID: | 444626 |
| Location: | HAMPTON, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 137 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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