By Marlene McTigue
For Capital Region Independent Media
RAVENA ─ Something cool is happening in the Capital District. Kids are getting excited about STEM ─ science, technology, engineering and math.
From Saratoga to Greenville, from Duanesburg to Clifton Park, and especially right here in Ravena, more and more local kids are coming together and dedicating their free time to problem solving, programming, robotics and engineering.
If you had walked into the gyms at RCS High School on Tuesday night you could have seen it for yourself. Throngs of kids and their parents came to participate in Robotics Night.
As each child entered the school, they were given the opportunity to sign up for a team at the Ravena Innovation Station, a local organization that provides fun and enriching STEM opportunities for local kids.
Kate Robertson is the communication director for the Ravena Innovation Station who helped to organize the event.
“This is the annual Robotics Night. The High School Robotics team has been doing this for a few years and this year we jumped in to help them out,” said Robertson. “Tonight, we have STEM activities for the kids to do. We’ve got several robot teams from around the Capital District and our teams from the Innovation Station have displays for the kids to see as well. We also have ice cream in the cafeteria, so kids come together after experiencing the event and have some time to just sit down and talk with each other about what they saw.”
First Robotics Challenge teams came to show off their big robots from Shenendehowa, Colonie and Tech Valley High, with First Tech Challenge teams making the trip from Duanesburg and Ballston Spa, all with the goal of sharing what the robot their teams have built can do.
Also on hand was Mike Baumgardner, from University at Albany’s College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security & Cybersecurity, who was there to introduce kids to possible career paths that utilize the skills learned in the STEM competitions.
“We are looking for folks who want to work on technologies, develop technologies and move technologies forward,” said Baumgardner. “We want to let folks see some of the opportunities that are available within our college, anything from 3D printing to Robomasters, to creating games and learning about our informatics degree.”
“Our graduates have gone on to be software developers, information architects, they have worked for all kinds of companies, Google and Meta, different banks and a lot of them have also started their own tech companies,” said Baumgarten.
Over in the far gym, high school teams were set up with their robots to show the curious what they could do.
The team from Shenendehowa brought their robot, which was built by 60 team members. Kids delighted as the team members programmed their robot to shoot foam rings into the air for the kids to try to catch. The teams at Shen start in elementary school and have over 100 members, according to their representative.
RCS Superintendent of Schools Dr. Brain Bailey was on han─ to take it in and help oversee the “controlled chaos” ─ as he put it ─ of hundreds of excited kids piloting drones, building cars out of Legos and conducting experiments.
“This is a great night,” exclaimed Dr. Bailey. “I was just saying to some of the kids that the Legos they are working with now are like NASA compared to Legos I had growing up. The things that they are able to do, and they just do it naturally, is absolutely amazing. Just seeing the excitement in their eyes shows us this is a great opportunity to get them excited about science, technology, engineering and math. We know what thinking about science and technology does for the brain ─ it grows synapses in a different way, and it gets them excited about learning. Having this hands-on opportunity to allow them to make things fly, or drive ─ it’s an amazing thing.”
If you are interested in learning more about high school robotics or the Ravena Innovation Station, you can check them out at www.ravenainnovationstation.org.