NAVAL SURFACE WARFARE CENTER, PHILADELPHIA DIVISION –
Since 2011, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division (NSWCPD) has partnered with Temple University supporting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) summer camps for middle and high school students in the Greater Philadelphia area. The camps, which normally bring students into Temple’s classrooms and dorms as well as NSWCPD test-sites and labs, were held virtually this year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Greater Philadelphia STEM Center (GPSC) Virtual Summer Camp for middle school students was stretched to four weeks this year and the STEM University Preparation (UP) Leadership Experience summer camp for high school students was stretched to six weeks. Both virtual camps were longer, which provided more information and opportunities for the participants.
“We were able to make it longer because we wanted to expose students to as many opportunities as possible,” said Tristan Wolfe, NSWCPD’s STEM Outreach manager. “Being in a virtual space allowed us to have more students per session and give more students the opportunity to experience STEM with a Navy focus. There was definitely a win in engaging a larger number of students.”
This year, there were 100 students across the two summer camps, compared to around 40 total students at last year’s camps.
The camps met Monday to Thursday with a morning session between 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. and then an afternoon session from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The GPSC camp focused on ecology, data science, robotics, mathematics, and science literacy. The STEM UP Leadership program focused on chemistry, optics and electricity, virtual robotics, data science, mathematics, literacy, biology, and information on how to succeed in college.
Students presented final briefs on each subject and received feedback from NSWCPD employees as well as Temple faculty. This year students had the unique opportunity to practice their virtual delivery skills, which could be part of a more digitally-focused future.
The goal of the GPSC camp is to introduce students to STEM concepts and naval engineering for the first time, while the goal of STEM UP is to prepare students for college level projects and highlight career opportunities within the Navy. The Navy sponsors both of these programs through NSWCPD’s partnership with Temple University. The camps are also built to work in tandem and students who attended the GPSC camp are encouraged to return for STEM UP.
“It was a very unique opportunity. The students gave up half of their summer; the kids who were there wanted to be and they did the work,” said Fred Williams, NSWCPD’s camp liaison and a data manager in the Command’s Logistics Product Readiness branch. “The virtual setting has proven it can be effective. While I do think there is value in face-to-face interaction, the students still had the opportunity to be exposed to STEM.”
While students were not able to interact in person or experience hands-on projects, they were able to gain experience with software that wouldn’t normally be highlighted in the camp.
“This year the camp incorporated data sciences, which I thought was really cool because that field has been identified by higher Navy as a new focus with new career opportunities in that area,” Wolfe said.
Summer camp participants had the opportunity to engage with several NSWCPD engineers and scientists and ask them questions about how they got into STEM and what type of work they do on a daily-basis.
“Early feedback has been positive,” Wolfe said. “How we engage with these audiences in the future will definitely be influenced by how we did things this year and what we learned from these camps. We are planning on having virtual events like this with students who aren’t in the Philadelphia region in the future.”
NSWCPD employs approximately 2,700 civilian engineers, scientists, technicians, and support personnel doing research and development, test and evaluation, acquisition support, and in-service logistics engineering for Navy ships. NSWCPD is also the lead organization providing cybersecurity for all ship systems.