GOOD NEWS!: Innovation Station builds in-demand tech skills

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By Marlene McTigue

For Capital Region Independent Media

Rick Robertson, left, president of the Innovation Station, oversees a robotics and STEM demonstration at RCS last June. File photo

So, what are your kids up to after school on any given weeknight? Watching TV, playing video games? Here in the town of Coeymans, kids as young as 10 can learn how to engineer those video games thanks to one of the new slate of spring programs offered by the Ravena Innovation Station.

Local kids can sign up for the Innovation Station’s Game Design with guidance from Albany’s Can Code Communities. Over seven Tuesday evenings from March 19 through April 30, kids ages 10 and up are welcome to come from 4:30-6 p.m. to learn the basics of the computer programming language Python and how it can be applied to the design and creation of video games. The class fee is $50.

Also offered this spring will be an Introduction to CAD class where middle and high school students will learn to digitally create 2D drawings and 3D models. That class is offered on Thursdays from 7-8:15 p.m. from March 21 through May 2, and the cost is $50.

A free offering this session will be Scratch Programming in conjunction with the Girls Who Code program. Girls in grades 3-5 will learn about inspiring female role models in the tech industry while learning to code. The class is offered on Mondays and Thursdays from 5:30-6:30 p.m. from April 8 to May 14.

A first-time offering this spring will be the Hydrogen Grand Prix Series being taught by one of Plug’s (formerly Plug Power) senior systems engineers and talent ambassadors, Jordan Grande. Plug has been a major sponsor and proponent of the Innovation Station since its inception last spring. In this class, which is currently full, elementary and middle school students learn about sustainability and renewable energy while building fuel cell powered vehicles. Hydrogen powered cars are street legal in other countries but not yet here in the states. It is technology Plug is banking on for their future.

Students of the RCS FIRST Tech Challenge team make modifications to their robot at the Regional Championship Tournament held in Utica on March 3. Teams like the Tech Challenge team hone their skills at the Innovation station every week. Contributed photo

Matt Grattan, director of Community and Workforce Development at Plug, believes partnering with the Innovation Station is a win for all involved.

“We have been developing community outreach and community benefit plan strategies at all of our project locations and certainly because we are headquartered and based here in the Capital Region, we are always on the lookout for organizations that are looking to promote STEM-oriented career programs but also re-careering adults as well,” said Grattan.

STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“The youth piece is important because we have to build a pipeline of talent so that we are encouraging and educating individuals as to what career opportunities are going to be available at Plug now and into the future,” Grattan added. “It’s more important now than ever to be engaging with young students and educating them as to what some of those STEM career paths might look like.”

Hydrogen power is still in its infancy stages.

“As it relates to us at Plug and the hydrogen economy, hydrogen is still relatively unknown in terms of its ability to be used as a source of energy,” Grattan said.

Building a knowledge base about hydrogen and the industry’s perception of  it is key.

“Everyone knows it as the number element on the periodic table, but they don’t know of it as an energy source,” said Grattan. “So, there is a lot of educational outreach that we feel like we need to be doing so finding organizations like the Innovation Station that have similar mindset- helping to share opportunities around career growth and development and what those opportunities look like and what those technologies are, is of critical importance to us. So, it was just really a match of the vision mission of the Innovation Station in alignment with what we’re trying to do at Plug and that’s why we decided to support the Innovation Station — because we love the concepts and what they are doing with young minds.”

Rick Robertson, Innovation Station president, said he is pleased with how the local STEM center’s first season of programming went off.

“We are very pleased with how our first round of programming went,” said Robertson. “We received a lot of positive feedback from parents and the kids who participated about new coding skills they learned, how they met new friends and learned the value of teamwork. We’re also so appreciative of the financial support we received from the community and local businesses and are incredibly grateful to the parents who stepped up to coach the robotics teams. We’re excited to expand programming this spring to help our students develop new skills and appreciate the opportunity to partner with Albany CanCode, Onshape and Plug Power on these programs.”

For those who are not sure if they are ready for a class, the Innovation Station is offering STEM Saturdays once a month. This is an opportunity for community kids and their parents to come in and participate in a fun activity designed to get kids thinking differently about the world around them. Check in with the group’s Facebook page for more information.

The Station will also be holding a Robotics Expo on March 24, from 2:30-4 p.m., where this past season’s teams will show off what they’ve learned. Everyone is invited to drop in and see what the experience is all about.

And the fun is not just for kids. 

Starting this week, on every second Tuesday community members (adults) are invited to drop in at Rail to River Brewing, where the group will offer Puzzled Pints. Billed as a casual, social puzzle-solving event that happens at bars/pubs on the second Tuesday of every month at multiple cities around the world. For more information on Puzzled Pints you can check out their website at https://puzzledpint.com/.

The Innovation Station is located in the basement of the Congregational Christian Church at 175 Main St. in Ravena. You can find out more about their spring programming and much more at https://www.ravenainnovationstation.org/.

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