DAHLGREN, Va. –
For more than a decade, Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division has invested in regional schools through STEM events, robotics competitions and technology donations — recognizing that the next generation of scientists and engineers essential to the Navy’s mission is already sitting in today’s classrooms.
“If we want to be ready to support the fleet tomorrow, we have to invest in students today,” said Tyler Truslow, STEM director at NSWCDD.
On Feb. 13 and 14, NSWCDD will host its annual Innovation Challenge at Dahlgren – called IC@D for short – for middle and high schoolers at the Fredericksburg Convention Center. The invitation-only event will bring together 35 teams that compete against one another to solve complex engineering challenges in what has become a flagship event for Dahlgren Divison’s STEM outreach efforts.
“For us, it’s the STEM Superbowl of the year,” Truslow said. “It’s a culmination of a lot of work the students have been doing, the teachers have been doing and what we’ve been doing along with them as they prepare for the competition.”
Launched for high school students in 2022 and expanded to middle schoolers two years later, IC@D is part of Dahlgren Division’s commitment to build the next generation of scientists and engineers who will develop and deliver weapons systems in support of national defense. But exposure to STEM – and building excitement around it – begins as early as elementary school. The goal, Truslow said, is to get students excited about STEM at the beginning of their academic careers. Elementary school students become middle school students who participate in IC@D. Those middle school students go on to participate in the high school IC@D – with many returning to Dahlgren Division for internship opportunities.
“We have people working at Dahlgren today – me included – who participated in NSWCDD STEM outreach programs when they were in a local school. We’ve also seen IC@D high school participants come back through university internships and ultimately join our workforce,” Truslow said. “The pipeline from STEM to the workforce is real.”
Multiplying impact
When NSWCDD received new robotics kits in late 2024 to replace an older set, Truslow reached out to Preston Ailor, an instructional technology resource teacher for Richmond County Public Schools who has led his high school robotics team to victory in two of the last three IC@D events. He thought Ailor, who splits his time between the county’s elementary/middle and high schools, could put the older Lego Mindstorm robot kits to good use.
Ailor was thrilled to have them. A teacher for more than 20 years, Ailor knows students identify as a math or science person in upper elementary school — and that it’s vital to get kids excited about STEM early.
“I just saw it as a great opportunity,” he said. After having a class of elementary schoolers put the robots together during indoor recess on a rainy day, “I immediately started incorporating them into fourth and fifth grade classes.”
He challenged the school’s fifth graders to design conceptual posters for imaginary robots — free from any limits on imagination or resources — and guided them in using generative AI to visualize their ideas, introducing them to AI and the basics of prompt engineering. He developed a Naval Sea Systems Command-themed robotics camp and curriculum using the NSCWDD kits as a foundation, incorporating the robots into science, math and even English classes.
Thirty students participated in the weeklong robotics competition for fifth and sixth graders modeled after Dahlgren Division’s innovation challenges, representing 15 percent of students in those grades.
“We were able to open it up to all students, not just gifted students, including those who didn’t think they were good at math and science. We had some high-level kids in there, but my biggest win was when a student told me on Day 2 that this was the first time she had stayed after school for anything other than tutoring. She told me, ‘I feel like one of the smart kids now,” Ailor said.
“This donation showed what’s possible when the STEM resources we offer at NSWCDD are multiplied by the incredible teachers who we get to partner with,” Truslow said. “Together with those educators as force-multipliers, we’re able to create hundreds more opportunities for students in rural areas that could serve as the spark to get a student on the path to doing groundbreaking work for our nation a decade from now.”
Community investment
When Dahlgren Division hosted its first IC@D five years ago, around a dozen schools participated. This year, Truslow is anticipating nearly 40 middle and high school teams. As interest in IC@D has grown, so has STEM outreach.
In fiscal 2022, NSWCDD STEM efforts reached 13,000 students. Two years later, that number had doubled to more than 26,000. Truslow estimates that since the start of IC@D, Dahlgren Division has engaged with 82,000 students and 500 unique educators.
“The command has made it a priority for us to develop the next generation of scientists and engineers who are going to solve national security issues, and they’ve given us the resources to do that,” he said.
Truslow also attributes the growth to the popularity of IC@D and the dedication of Dahlgren Division’s STEM advocates, who are the scientists and engineers who deliver technical excellence here every day.
NSWCDD has provided 3D printers, electronics kits, desktop computers and chemistry and biology materials. It has donated robotics kits to 40 schools, including full classroom sets to seven schools. It supports STEM nights, science fairs, coding clubs, in-class workshops, classroom-based STEM projects and speaking engagements. Dahlgren Division and its STEM advocates help run the annual STEM Summer Academy for regional middle schoolers and design curriculums and challenges for National Robotics Week each spring.
“Our scientists and engineers are doing all of this work behind the scenes as a collateral duty on top of their day job because they believe in it,” Truslow said. “They want to make an impact on the next generation of students.”
Along the way, they show students that a career in STEM is not only possible – but within reach in their own backyards.
The next generation
When Richmond County Elementary School teacher Kaylyn Drake began a unit on the solar system, she turned to Ailor, who can come up with a STEM-based project for just about any subject using the Dahlgren Division-donated robots.
“My job is to have creative freedom,” Ailor said. The more he brings the robots to classrooms, the more teachers ask him to incorporate them into their own lessons. “It spreads like an infection.”
Ailor had just the thing for Drake’s fourth grade class, which spent a week working in eight small groups to research an assigned planet. Students wrote some of the facts they found on paper plates and designed them to look like their planet. Ailor used large mats – also donated by NSWCDD – to make a large-scale, one-dimensional model of the solar system.
The solar system unit would culminate with students learning how to use iPads to create an algorithm to “tell” their robot to orbit the solar system.
“They’re getting a whole computer science vocabulary,” Ailor said.
Inside Drake’s classroom, he walked students through connecting iPads to robots and entering a series of commands.
“Commands are special directions,” Ailor explained to the students. “Computers are great because they do what you tell them to. But we can get it wrong. Sometimes when we get it wrong, it’s more fun. OK. Now we’re going to write an algorithm.”
Once they were done, the students taped their planets to the top of the robot. Then they filed out of the classroom and toward the school entrance, where the solar system filled up much of the floor. Then came the big test: To see whether each planet would “orbit” around the sun.
The students watched as the robots began their programmed trek. Every so often, a planet drifted into a neighboring orbit or started going backwards – “It’s going back in time!” one of the kids announced – but for the most part, the robots stayed on course.
After watching them for a while, Ailor asked the students if they wanted to go back to class for free play with the robots. They wanted to stay in the hallway and watch their planets.
“My least engaged students are the most engaged with these STEM-based projects. They really fall in love with it. They have more fun doing this than they do at recess,” Drake said.
As Ailor and Drake answered questions, they both understood that the students were taking in much more than a lesson on the solar system. They knew that maybe, somewhere among the group was a student – or students – for whom this was a first spark in what could become a STEM career.
As the lesson ended, Ailor posed a question. “Raise your hand,” he said, “if you want to be on a robotics team when you go to middle school.”
He and Drake watched as their hands flew up.
For Dahlgren Division, those raised hands represent more than student enthusiasm. They reflect a long-term investment in the Navy’s future technical workforce.
To learn more about NSWCDD STEM outreach programs or to volunteer as a STEM advocate, contact NSWCDahlgrenSTEM@us.navy.mil.