South River Gala Showcases STEM Students

South River High School showcased the work of the 251 students enrolled in the Science Technology Engineering Math (STEM) program on Tuesday. Students enrolled in the program include participants from Broadneck, Severna Park, Annapolis, Crofton, Southern, and students from Edgewater and Davidsonville — who would normally be inbound to the school.

The Gala was an opportunity for the school to highlight the program to prospective middle school students by introducing them to the work of current program participants. There were 26 different stations, each demonstrating a different area of interest, including robotics, art, science, aerospace, statistics, chemistry and a Rube Goldberg machine.

"Pedro," one of the robots from the school's PowerHawks Robotics team was demonstrated in the cafeteria. Pedro was built six years ago for the nationwide First Robotics competition. Pedro moves forward, backward and side to side, but he also shoots out basketballs that kids can catch.

Sean Bergman, 16, of Crofton, is a junior, and in his third year with both the STEM program and the robotics team. He is in charge of CAD, or computer assisted drafting. "I basically build the robot on a computer," Bergman said. He hopes to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to study mathematics or physics.

"I like the robotics program here because you can incorporate everything into it. If you've never used a screwdriver, you can come in and help to build a robot," Berman said.

Freshman Eric Johnson, 14, of Cape St. Claire, said that he decided to attend South River rather than his home school of Broadneck because he really likes robotics. "Science and math are my best subjects, I like video games and I wanted to get more involved in STEM subjects," Johnson said.

He also wants to attend MIT to study aerospace engineering. He's on the junior varsity PowerHawks team, where he currently works as a programmer and builder. Johnson was in the upstairs media center showcasing the robot their JV squad built.

Johnson demonstrated how they built the robot to "tank drive," a drive system on a robot that uses a joystick to get the machine to move.

PowerHawks faculty adviser and Project Lead the Way mentor Ryan Sackett teaches engineering at the school and said that he has been working hard to bring in women and minorities into the program. He said that for the STEM Gala the administration provided buses for students to attend in order to pique their interest in STEM. 

"We want to encourage as many students as we can to come check it out," Sackett said. "I try to go to other schools and talk to Boys and Girls Clubs so that I can interest students from outside of South River to come here," he said.

Jared Bishop attended Severn River Middle. He's also a freshman, and so far, he's enjoying the experience. A lot of his friends are at Broadneck, and he said that he is missing some of his old friends, but is making new ones at South River.

"I came to the program because I thought it would be rewarding with the advanced classes. I love science and engineering," Bishop said. He hopes for career in aerospace engineering as well.

The gala also included VIPs from Anne Arundel County Public Schools' central office, including Superintendent Kevin m. Maxwell and members of the Board of Education.

For more information on STEM, visit http://www.aacps.org/admin/templates/stemnews.asp?articleid=325&zoneid=5.