Students from school districts 88, 45 and 4 participate in a STEM camp

From June 20 to July 1, about 30 students participated in a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) camp at Willowbrook.

Participants attend District 88 (Addison Trail and Willowbrook), Addison School District 4 and School District 45. During the camp, students learned how to code apps for android devices, as well as how to program robots. The event was hosted in partnership with LearnTEC, Inc. The two-week camp culminated in a fun competition called "Game of Drones," where participants programmed and flew drones.

“What made me want to join the camp is I kind of like playing games, so it’s cool to know how it all works, so I can maybe make my own game one day,” said Carolyn Burns, who will be an eighth-grader at Jackson Middle School this fall. “It’s actually awesome that we get to do this camp, because I know some people don’t even learn this until high school, and it’s cool we can get a head start to learn this.”

Sara Das, who will be a sophomore at Willowbrook this fall, agreed. She said she learned new skills from attending the STEM camp.

“I think just building robots and learning how to create things and problem solving has been a very important thing to learn,” Das said. “This is actually very new to me. I didn’t know this would be something I would be interested in, so I decided to sign up and see if it was something that would interest me.”

District 88 Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Adam Cibulka said the districts were thrilled to provide this experience.

“It was just a great opportunity for the kids to really dive into something they’re interested in,” Cibulka said. “In the future, we hope to offer more programs like this. We know this is the first step of many in terms of expanding this field … to where we can engage students in this kind of next generation of technology, as well as the next generation of skills (they) need to participate out in the career field. We know these fields are in high demand out in the workforce, and our mission to help students be college and career ready aligns directly with that.”

To watch a video of the STEM camp, click on the image above.