Decatur summer camp introduces sixth graders to STEM, robotics

DECATUR, Ala. (WHNT) — You may be smarter than a fifth grader, but you’re definitely not smarter than the sixth graders at the Cyber and STEM Talent Camp (CaST) in Decatur.

The one-week summer program is put on by the Decatur Morgan County Minority Development Association. It introduces kids in Decatur City Schools to STEM through fun, hands-on learning.

“You can just tell that they’re so excited,” volunteer and Nucor engineer Alaina Wiley said, “and they’re really excited when they get their robot to do exactly what they want it to do.”

Wiley went through a program similar to CaST when she was in school, which she says inspired her career in STEM. Now, Wiley hopes to pass that inspiration on to the next generation of coders and engineers.

“I owe my future to my experience with robotics when I was in middle school,” Wiley said. “So I hope that we can touch some of these kids in the same way.”

Put on in partnership with sponsors like Calhoun Community College, 3M, and Nucor Steel, the program also exposes kids to new career paths and interests.

That’s exactly what CaST is doing for returning camper Susie Spencer.

“One person just programmed that robot and it was already making things that we use in daily life,” Spencer said. “That just made me feel like, wow this is actually pretty neat.”

But Susie’s favorite part of the camp… was soldering.

“As soon as I put my hand on that tool, as soon as I melted metal, all I thought in my mind was I did this,” Spencer said. “I melted metal. I built a flashlight. And that sparked something in me.”

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