Robots Take Over Summer Camp, But West Point Cadets Are on the Scene

It’s an unusual site: West Point cadets in their uniforms, pacing rows of tables, helping teenagers who are hunched over what looks like piles of small plastic blocks and wires. A cheer erupts from the back corner as one cadet commends a student duo for being the first pair to successfully complete their mission: building a robot.This is the VEX Robotics Workshop, one of 40 free STEM camps offered to students by Dallas ISD this summer. The camps focus on science, technology, engineering or math. Or, in this case, robots.Eighth-grader Thea Camerata shrugs nonchalantly and says, it’s “like building with Legos, but a lot smaller and a lot harder.”On this day in the Longfellow Middle School library, a handful of cadets peruse the pods of 20 or so students and lead the workshop. One of the organizers, Dr. Sam Ivy, West Point’s Assistant Director for the center for leadership and diversity in STEM, hovers nearby.The students may be outranked — everyone at this camp is part of the district’s Leadership Cadet Corps — but they have no trouble joking with the West Point cadets who are helping them.   Continue reading...