Students engage in Yuma Proving Ground free science program
13 On Your Side's Vanessa Gongora attended the GEMS Program and spoke to students about their experience
YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) invites students from sixth through eighth grade every summer to learn about STEM occupations and activities.
YPG Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP) and Gains in the Education of Mathematics and Science (GEMS) allow students to get hands-on experience with labs to fit in with YPG's mission, which is testing and evaluation.
Paula Rickleff, YPG STEM Outreach Manager said they want to expose the students to all that YPG does.
"We ensure out here at YPG that when the solider receives that item, that it performs as intended so we do the test and evaluation on it, that if it's gonna fail, we want it to fail here and we want to fix it," said Rickleff.
Then when it's time for the soldier to use it for their mission, it's 100% ready.
So teaching the kids early on helps them understand all of YPG's duties.
"We do some robotics and we have our actual engineers and scientists that teach all of our labs," said Rickleff.
The free summer camp has 13 different labs they do throughout the week that teach them different skills.
"They take their robot and have challenges right here. First, they have to learn how to make it turn, how to make it go straight, how to measure the distance because everything is degrees, seconds, and distance when they're programming," Rickleff continued.
From launching rockets, and building gliders to constructing the robots using coding, the kids enjoy it all.
Sixth grader Timothy Schauer explained how he put together the robot.
"Well there's three bricks and each one was a different part of it that fits together pretty easily," said Schauer. "This is the remote. Well, you can do it manually but it's easier to do it from the app so you can like select stuff on it."
The goal is to get the robot through the maze.
Timothy's partner, Adam Garner said the project wasn't too difficult.
"Once you get the first line and are able to get passed, you just do that over again and then reverse it backwards and just do the course again," Garner said.
The kids shared their favorite experiment.
Schauer said launching rockets was his favorite, meanwhile, Garner had something different on his mind.
"Favorite part was when we got to drive in the Humvee yesterday. That was really fun. We went up some hills and we went pretty freaking fast," described Garner.
About 80 children are accepted into the program each year and YPG provides transportation to and from the base.
Rickleff mentioned that it's not first come, first serve.
"We go through and have a prioritization. Since it's offered to upcoming sixth, seventh, and eighth graders, those that might age out, so they're going to be an eighth grader, we try to give them the opportunity to attend the camp because the sixth and seventh graders will have two more years of eligibility," explained Rickleff.
Most AEOP programs ensure that the underserved and underrepresented also have priority.
If you would like to learn more about GEMS and sign up your child for next summer, you can visit their website.
Teachers and near-peer mentors in high school and college can also apply to help out with the program. You do not have to be army affiliated.
