REHAMS Camp Provides High School Students with Hands-On Experience, New Skills
June 26, 2015 | 海角社区 Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
Forty high school students built underwater robots, toured local industries and learned
about life as an engineer as part of the 海角社区 College of Engineering鈥檚 Recruiting into
Engineering High Ability Multicultural Students, or REHAMS, summer camp.
The camp, held June 14 through June 20, provided selected students a week of hands-on
activities designed to further explore their interest in engineering, construction
management and computer science, to build applicable skill sets and to learn from
海角社区 faculty, students and industry professionals. It also gave participants the opportunity
to live on campus and experience life as an 海角社区 Tiger. This year, 27 boys and 13 girls
from four states attended.
鈥淥verall, I was very pleased with every component of the camp,鈥� said Terrica Jamison,
the College鈥檚 assistant recruitment manager and the camp organizer. "This was one
of the most academically engaged and well-behaved student groups we鈥檝e had in the
last few years."
Among the many camp activities鈥攚hich included a tour of the Shell refinery, a team-building
exercise at the University Recreation Center ropes challenge course, a series of engineering-focused
workshops and the like鈥攐ne of the most popular events was the underwater robotics
competition.
At the start of the camp, students learned about engineering design in a lesson taught
by Eric Turgeau, a biology and robotics teacher at Walker High School. They were then
divided into teams and provided conventional and nonconventional materials to construct
the bots over the course of the week. (Think: everything from PVC pipe and battery
packs to kitchen spatulas and fuzzy pipe cleaners). At the end of the week, the student
teams created a poster outlining their design process, presented it before their peers
and competed to see which team鈥檚 robots could successfully fetch pool rings and batons
underwater.
鈥淭he competition was so amazing to the students,鈥� Jamison said, 鈥渆specially the ones
who had never participated in a robotics competition.鈥�
Another highlight, Jamison said, was watching the students explore the various fields
of engineering and get excited about what they were learning. Some students discovered
totally new interests and skills, she said, while others further pursued existing
passions.
鈥淒uring the civil engineering program, one of the labs they showed us had a driving
simulator that allowed us to drive a real car in a virtual world,鈥� said Katie Gonsoulin,
a rising senior at the Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts in Natchitoches.
鈥淎fter seeing the driving simulation, having the opportunity to interact with it and
understanding how it collects data, I became really excited about potentially majoring
in civil engineering or computer science.鈥�
That excitement is the whole reason REHAMS exists, Jamison said, noting the camp is
the 鈥渇irst step in pursuing a thriving engineering career.鈥�
鈥淲e wanted to make sure this was the best REHAMS camp ever,鈥� she said. 鈥淔rom the feedback
I鈥檝e received from parents, professors and students, we succeeded.鈥�
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For a gallery of photos from the camp, visit the College Facebook page at .