The University of Wyoming is hosting numerous week-long summer camps beginning June 25 and ending July 20, designed and intended to be developmental launch pads for science, technology, engineering, art and math for kindergarten through 12th grade.
Educators from Wyoming and a few from surrounding states will utilize the training as professional development in maintaining certification. Classes will also be taught at Central Wyoming College in Riverton. The Gen Cyber and Cowpokes sessions in Laramie are the only sessions still available for registration on the Internet at cowpokes.camp.
“The three major components of the summer science and technology program will be called Gen Cyber, RAMPED and ESP4T with each having specific focus in a STEM-related field and a specific set of outcomes while also overlapping and cooperating between the different courses,” Andrea Burrows, UW associate professor of education (science methods and pedagogy), said. “Gen Cyber focuses on cybersecurity, RAMPED focuses more broadly around our state mandate of improving computer and technological skills in the classroom and ESP4T focuses on the hands-on hardware applications by programming an actual device.”
The logistics of planning or coordinating such an event comes down to more than available space and time; it comes down to funding. The funding for these continuing education programs is derived from several sources: the Wyoming Department of Education; the National Science Foundation; the United States Department of Defense; and the U.S. National Security Agency.
“Each program is separately funded but each has overlapping content with differentiated approaches,” Burrows said. “The Gen Cyber program, for instance, will have educators and students both working independently from one another but will have sessions where they work together to put their camp curriculum to the test and see how classroom situations might function. This method is useful because educators can work out any bumps with guidance and real students have to be integral in that process.”
University of Wyoming undergraduate students, graduate students and interns will all be working alongside k-12 students and educators to facilitate the courses and act as a bridge between classroom educators and students. Some undergraduates will be intensely involved with the summer suite as hardware developers and designers using the “Micro:bit” platform as their building block for more complex coding and functionality.
“I’m part of designing the ‘badge’ [slang for the physical “Micro:bit” platform], getting batteries, directing the power source and making them actually look cool for the students that will be participating,” UW freshman in the school of mechanical engineering Nic Robinson said. “I had my friend Garrett Burrows kind of give me a heads up and get me into it so I just went with the flow this semester and it sounded like a really great opportunity to learn and teach at the same time.”
This is the first National Security Agency Gen Cyber conference in Wyoming’s history. The conference and continuing education programs come at a time when national news outlets, the United States government and many corporations are dedicating resources and attention to cyber-security threats and vulnerabilities within their own systems and those they cooperate with. Representatives from the U.S. Department of Defense and NSA will visit Riverton’s CWC campus.
“Science was definitely a big focus for me in high school and especially physics so it’s cool to see people getting that hands-on experience, it’s what made me want to be an engineer,” UW freshman and energy systems major Ben Monger said. “It’s really important to stay up to date with these kinds of studies and it’s also easy to lose all this knowledge over the summer without practice so seeing the interest and new technology together is great but it’s also important to balance your time and drive so you don’t get burnt out.”
Check the UW College of Engineering and Applied Science homepagewww.uwyo.edu/ceas/for specific times and dates pertaining to sign-up and registration information. Although some courses may be filled, interested parties can still sign up for a waiting list registration status.
