NASA workshop for deaf and blind inspires students of all abilities

FAIRMONT, W.Va. (WBOY) — Continuing to inspire a love for science and teamwork, NASA has been hosting student workshops at its Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility in Fairmont, including one for students from the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind .

After getting up bright and early on Saturday and traveling from Romney, West Virginia, around 15 students from WVSDB got to launch a rocket, build a robot and fly a drone.

NASA officials from the Education Resource Center (ERC) hope this hands on experience will inspire these students to join in the three new teams NASA is helping to launch at the WVSDB after the pandemic disrupted the school’s original robotics program. The new teams will be a rocket team, a robotics team, and a drone team.

John Holbrook, a graduate of the ERC program, now works for it as the Robotic and Drones Competition Lead.

“Our goal at the ERC is to inspire, educate and employ students across West Virginia,” Holbrook said. “And one of several ways that we do that is by supporting competitive robotics tournaments and teams across the state.”

While the students who attended the weekend workshop have a range of hearing and visual disabilities, ERC program manager Todd Ensign said he and his team are experienced in making the workshop all inclusive after working with the school since around 2014.

“Making sure that they have the tactile, you know resources in their hands,” Ensign said. “We talk about a nose cone, they can hold a nose cone, when they assemble robots they can feel and work with those.”

For those who have hearing disabilities, they have interpreters. Ensign said during competitions those same students can go head to head with other students across the state, but equipped with additional visual cues to better help with things like competition timers.

Regardless of their background or ability, these students were just excited to build on their STEM and team working skills. WVSDV student Elijah Collins, who has a visual impairment, said being a part of the school has been a huge help to him and discussed how the workshop inspired him.

“When you look at it, most people are like “oh how is somebody that’s deaf going to work with somebody that’s blind”…and both sides of it just connect really well…comes out as a team with great problem solving abilities and great teamwork.”

WVSDV student Skylar Lanham, who is hearing impaired and worked alongside Collins, enjoyed the workshop as well and said she hopes to join the teams someday.

“I love learning how to compete with a drone and robots, I’m liking it.”

More information about the Katherine Johnson IV&V Facility can be found on its website .

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