By: Ted Baker of the Innovation Connector and Ryan Hunter of TechWise Academy—
Muncie, IN—The idea for the camp was conceived by Roza Selvey, Southside STEM teacher, and Ryan Hunter of TechWise Academy during a MCS Professional Development Day in January. Ryan reached out to Ted Baker at the Innovation Connector who was immediately on board with the vision. As an outcome of this partnership, the first Robotics Summer Camp will take place at Muncie Southside Middle School during the week of July 10 -14 from 9am to noon each day. Muncie Southside Middle School has taken care of signing up interested students. There is no cost for the camp.
“This really is a great example of multiple organizations in the community working together for a common goal of impacting our youth,” says Hunter. “These students will be engineers for the week and use math, science, computer programming, and problem solving to address real-world problems with the robots. And they’ll have tons of fun while doing it.”
“This is an exciting “first” for the Innovation Connector,” states Ted Baker, Executive Director of the Innovation Connector. “This camp is a direct result of the success of our Coding Connector initiative and is our first move to partner with local schools.” The Innovation Connector recently purchased ten Lego robots with funds received from a grant by The George and Frances Ball Foundation and will be used in many other classes that will be held at the Innovation Connector.” Baker continues, “Programs like this camp and others would not be possible without the financial support from our community partners. These robots are definitely the most innovative learning tool we have now at our center.”
While the Innovation Connector focuses on the behind-the-scenes work, TechWise Academy does the hands-on code and robotic training. Led by Brandon Coppernoll and Ryan Hunter, TechWise Academy provides the technical training for all of the Coding Connector programs and is now leading the Robotics Summer Camp initiative. Future computer coding sessions and robotics programs will start again in the fall and will be posted on www.innovationconnector.com as soon as available.
For more information, contact: Alexis Dishman, 765-285-4900, or via email at akdishman@innovationconnector.com
