Valley kids explore all things robotic in Palm Desert
The Westfield Shopping Center in Palm Desert transformed into a laboratory on Saturday where rocket scientists rocked and “X-Treme” teams of kids got creative at College of the Desert’s first Science & Technology Festival.
With the help of Time Warner Cable and 12 exhibitors, kids explored all things robotic.
“They’re playing with a basketball-shooting robot, they’re racing robots on the track over here and having all kinds of fun,” said Rebecca Hutson of Desert Hot Springs.
Elli Tourje, a spokeswoman for Time Warner Cable, said, “It’s the perfect opportunity to get out of the heat and really engage. You’re shopping at the mall, and this time kids get to do what they want to do.”
The event was all about connecting kids to hands-on learning opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math.
The National Science Foundation reports 80 percent of jobs created in the next decade will require math and science skills. This is a challenge for educators — today’s students show dwindling interest in these subjects.
A recent survey shows 84 percent of middle schoolers say they’d rather eat their vegetables, take out the garbage, or clean their room — than learn about science or math.
“We don’t know what 10 years (from now) is going to look like. We do know it’s going to involve robotics. We do know in order to have any robotics, science, technology, engineering and math are definite areas kids have got to want to learn,” said Tourje.
That’s why for the past four years the college has offered free robotics camps to middle school students.
“You get to use creativity. I made this scooter thing. It kind of looks like a motorcycle, but it was a two-wheeler,” said eighth grader Bella Lax.
The event and summer robotics camps are funded by grants from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office and Time Warner Cable.
“This is the end of the summer, a culmination of all those camps. We wanted to bring the experience to the community,” said Avante Simmons, College of the Desert’s CTE Transitions Specialist.
May the force be with the next generation of creative minds.
