ALLIANCE, Ohio – Aspiring science and engineering students were on campus at the University of Mount Union for the 2019 STEMcoding Summer Camp.

Local high school and middle school girls participated in both computer programming tasks and hands-on activities outside the classroom led by program director, Dr. Richelle Teeling-Smith, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Mount Union. Presentations and activities throughout the week were assisted by physics and mechanical engineering major, Katie Sweitzer ’20 of Gnadenhutten, Ohio and physics alumna Morgan Hamilton ’19 of Paris, Ohio.

Activities throughout the camp featured:

• STEMcoding computer programming tasks that included creating working video games such as Asteroids, Lunar Lander, Angry Birds, Pong and Bonk.io
• Learning about the “Physics of Soccer,” with a presentation and hands-on activities by physics alumnus Joe Winiecki ’19 of Stow, Ohio
• A “Robot Design Challenge” where campers built their own robot car and programmed the car to race through an obstacle course in a timed competition
• The “Angry Birds Ball Launch” where campers calculated the trajectory of a projectile to see who could get their ball to hit the distant target
• The “Marshmallow Tower” engineering challenge, where the campers designed and constructed the tallest possible tower using only marshmallows and uncooked spaghetti noodles
• Students’ final STEMcoding programming project had each team write or modify their computer code to create their own custom video game

Through the support of Alliance’s business incubator, INCUBOX, the university offered scholarship opportunities for local camp participants. For more information on the camp, visit mountunion.edu/stemcoding-summer-camp.