BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Telegraph Staff Writer
The I Am STEM camp Edrick Hamilton is involved in provides, of course, educational enrichment for children, but it’s also a way of imparting some life skills and tips.
This year marked the second straight summer Hamilton, the behavior resource teacher at Starke’s Southside Elementary School, offered a STEM camp at the Starke Church of God by Faith’s Community Learning Center. (He and teacher Ronni Spangler also offered one at Southside previously.) Adhering to the components of the STEM acronym (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), children in grades 2-8 participated in projects involving such things as computer coding, building rockets and flying drones.
Yet on July 7, they also learned such things as how to apply bandages and tourniquets and how to perform CPR and the Heimlich maneuver, courtesy of a visit by members of Bradford County Fire Rescue and UF Health.
“I think it’s important to know those life skills or those life-saving skills,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton plays recreational volleyball with Elizabeth Warren, who is the chest-pain coordinator for UF Health. That led to teaching those life-saving skills to the children on July 7. Warren coordinated the effort, which also included sending CPR practice kids home with each camp participant.
The youngest children may not remember all the steps for performing CPR, for example, but Hamilton believes they benefitted from the experience as much as the older children.
“Some of the things they learned or were taught — they may be too young to perform,” Hamilton said, “but you don’t know what information they’re retaining. They can give that knowledge to an adult and help them out.”
For those who know Hamilton, it’s not surprising that he wants to offer a STEM camp that goes beyond the STEM components. It falls in line with his desire to give children a variety of skills and knowledge that will help them in life. One day at the STEM camp, he talked to the children about stress — what it is and how to prevent it.
In a way, the STEM camp is like an extension of the 12 Guys in Bow Ties and 12 Girls in Pearls mentoring program Hamilton created. It supplements the education children receive in the classroom.
“I try to give every experience I can to the kids,” Hamilton said. “Like the mentoring program, it’s about just giving experiences. I tell the kids it’s not always about just growing up and trying to go to college. You’re trying to grow up to be a responsible adult.”
At this year’s camp, Hamilton created the opportunity for two previous camp participants (as well as a friend of theirs) to be counselors-in-training. It was a chance to still be a part of the camp, even though they had aged out.
As the camp progressed, Hamilton saw those counselors-in-training — Jessica Brown, Mackenzie Miller and Rochelle Ross — go from being told what needs to be done to automatically doing it. The same can be said of Jackson Charles, a youth volunteer.
It’s another way of helping young people on the path toward becoming responsible adults.
“Those are the types of workers supervisors want to keep around,” Hamilton said. “They see someone who’s got initiative.”
Learning can be fun
The number-one goal of the STEM camp is to immerse children in the subjects of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. That’s not accomplished by doing nothing but reading from a textbook and memorizing facts. It consists of launching various types of rockets, for example, with help from Bruce Griner of the Department of Defense’s STARBASE program. It’s piloting drones and building robots.
What the camp offered children was a chance to experiment in ways that often aren’t available to them at school.
“STEM is important,” Hamilton said. “It is the active engagement of the mind. Instead of just a nonchalant reading, this is hands-on learning — project-based learning. Research states that kids are more engaged in project-based learning. We just don’t have time in the school year to do a lot of project-based learning.
“I want to provide an opportunity for kids to get excited about learning and try to keep them active and busy.”
STEM activities provide alternate ways of learning, which Hamilton will tell you is huge. A child may struggle with a subject if it’s taught one way, but may flourish if it’s taught another way. Hamilton knows that from personal experience.
“I don’t like the subject of history,” he said. “I’ve always disliked it. I only had one history class that I enjoyed when I was in high school. The only reason I enjoyed it was my history teacher made a competition. We had to learn these different facts, and we competed as teams against other teams in our class and the against the (school’s) other classes.
“I’m a competitive person. That’s the only history class I ever enjoyed.”
When he was a classroom teacher, Hamilton would use rap music to engage his students. Lyrics would incorporate what they were learning in class.
“It has a beat and a rhythm the kids can catch onto,” Hamilton said. “When they sing those songs, it gets them engaged. I said, ‘Guys, that’s your legal cheat sheet. Once that song is in your mind, and when it’s time for testing, I can’t tell you not to write down what’s in your head.’”
Children at this year’s STEM camp learned about computer coding as part of a fun project that, when done correctly, resulted in an on-screen dancing shark.
“When the kids see it work, they get up and start dancing,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton said the coding project positively affected the children’s confidence and gave them a glimpse into a career opportunity they wouldn’t have associated with engineering.
“When you say ‘engineering,’ you never think it can be something as cool as doing coding,” Hamilton said.
This year’s camp, which consisted of 27 children, began June 20 and ended July 22.
The camp benefitted once again from a donation made by the Bradford County Democrats We Care Program. The camp received $10,000 last year and $15,000 this year.
Hamilton said that money, of course, helped to purchase various kits and materials. It also helped fund income-based scholarships as well as providing some type of discount to every child’s family that applied for a scholarship.
“It’s been a blessing,” Hamilton said of the We Care Program’s support. “It’s something I don’t have to stress about. I can just worry about, ‘OK, what lesson can I teach the kids?’”
Such donations show that Hamilton isn’t the only one who understands how important such a summer camp is.
“It’s great that other people can believe in it and see that it’s something that’s needed in our community,” Hamilton said.
