Popular WaterBotics and GADgET summer youth camps draw in budding scientists to Triton College’s campus
It’s more than a 700-mile journey between Triton College in River Grove, Ill. and Greensboro, N.C. But to Valeria Elliott of Greensboro, it is a trip worth traveling to give her daughter the opportunity to learn about a field she’s passionate about at Triton’s one-of-a-kind summer camp.
GADgET Camp – Girls Adventuring in Design Engineering and Technology – is designed to empower and create an interest in engineering technology among girls between the ages of 12 and 16. Now in its second year, the camp will teach girls from Illinois, Indiana and North Carolina about product design and how to utilize various tools to create their very own “gadgets” in a field that is currently male-dominated. The girls will get their very own tool set and learn to work heavy-duty equipment (with assistance, of course), as well as receive the opportunity to meet women working in the field and visit area manufacturing businesses.
Camp Director and Triton Engineering Technology instructor Antigone Sharris said only about 15 percent of students enrolled in the Engineering Technology program at Triton College are females, but she believes that opportunities like GADgET will fuel the growth she envisions.
“Not only do I want to generate interest in the field among young girls, but I want them to feel independent and empowered,” she said.
Elliott, who contacted Sharris after reading an article last year about the camp in the New York Times, explained her daughter Nicole’s interest in power tools and building projects and expressed the lack of summer camp opportunities like GADgET in her area.
“I have been searching for opportunities for her,” Elliott wrote in an e-mail. “[GADgET Camp] seems like a perfect match for my daughter’s interests and I think it could give her the motivation she needs to continue learning about this field… She is a bright girl, and I think she would feel very empowered [sic] if she can have this type of experience with other girls and have access to female role models in science.”
Sharris is one of those role models. She worked for manufacturing corporations for numerous years before teaching at Triton. And she’s very heavily involved with STEM-related (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) groups and projects offered at area high schools.
Sponsored by Nuts, Bolts and Thingamajigs, GADgET Camp is currently the only program of its kind that the foundation currently sponsors. The camp will run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 23-26 on Triton’s campus. This camp is full.
The prior week, Triton College’s Engineering Technology program will host another STEM-focused camp from July 16-19. WaterBotics Camp exposes sixth, seventh and eighth grade students to engineering research and allow them to meet STEM professionals and role models in engineering careers.
Nineteen participants from schools in Triton’s surrounding communities will use their creativity and logic to make underwater robots programmed to swim at this four-day camp. This camp is full.
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ABOUT GADGET CAMP
GADgET is part of a national manufacturing summer camp program designed and sponsored by Nuts, Bolts and Thingamajigs, the foundation of the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association and the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship. Learn more about these organizations at www.nutsandboltsfoundation.org and www.nacce.com. GADgET is also sponsored by Interlake Mecalux and Dynomax Inc.
ABOUT WATERBOTICS CAMP
WaterBotics is part of the Build It Scale Up (BISU) program by the League for Innovation in Community Colleges and The Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education (CIESE) at Stevens Institute of Technology. The BISU program is funded by a five-year National Science Foundation grant designed to increase learning and career interest in science and engineering for middle and high school students in disadvantaged communities. Triton received a three-year grant to implement the program; it is currently in its second year. Learn more about WaterBotics at www.ciese.org/waterbotics.
ABOUT TRITON COLLEGE
Triton College is one of the nation’s premier two-year institutions of higher education dedicated to student success. Located 14 miles from downtown Chicago, in River Grove, the school offers close to 100 degree and certificate programs at its 100-acre campus that features state-of-the-art facilities and a comfortable, friendly and diverse atmosphere. More than 15,000 students enroll at Triton each year to take advantage of Triton’s small, accessible classes, qualified faculty and affordability and financial assistance. Triton College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission; member, North Central Association.
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