BETA Camp winner Vanessa Claridge was the winner of the 100 percent virtual BETA Hackathon in July, which proved to be so successful that camp co-founders Trenicka Rolle-Dukes and D’Andre Wilson-Iherjirika will host a second camp via the virtual platform later this month.
Claridge won BETA Camp 2020, which focused on sustainability and resiliency with an emphasis on renewable energy, agriculture and manufacturing. Teams created a 3D greenhouse using a variety of software. Participants used coding and video games to present their innovation. The learning streams were specific to engineering including electrical, mechanical, civil, biomedical and chemical, as well as computer science and web development.
Claridge walked away with a Microsoft Surface Go Tablet with accessories.
Speakers from The Bahamas and Canada shared their knowledge over Google Classroom with Claridge and the other student participants, who also received a virtual tour of the Caribbean Bottling plant on New Providence.
Kaeden Levarity, 12, from Grand Bahama, has spent the past three summers with BETA Camp. She, along with Thomas Lockhart, led their team which comprised of students from Grand Bahama, New Providence and Abaco.
Levarity said the camp expanded her knowledge of biology, and taught her about making a living from farming and how things work.
“We had a variety of speakers – some spoke about carbon and how it affected climate change,” said Levarity. “We made a scaled greenhouse for plants to grow in our harsh summer climate. If plants have too much humidity, they will die, so we used a humidifier and a temperature gauge to solve that problem.”
In Toronto, Canada, Genson Pageot, 15, and his brother Soneal, 14, embraced different streams.
Genson chose civil engineering – his team won in 2018; while Soneal, who joined for the first time, chose electrical engineering, and his team won this year’s competition. As leader of his group, Soneal recommended the Minecraft game to build a greenhouse.
“I was able to apply what I learned about circuits, and about electrical fields, breakers and grounding. It was intimate and we were able to build machines and contraptions that are used in a greenhouse,” said Soneal. “We used Red Stone for daylight sensors to transfer water from the machine, and we were able to show how rainwater could be transferred from a machine. We were proud to have a winning team.”
It was not only the students who gained knowledge. Instructor Edison Hanchell said that in many ways he enjoyed the virtual classroom.
“We had the opportunity to speak to the students individually and since everyone was online, we learned together. When we stopped to help one person, everyone else had to watch. It was more interactive and informative.”
Rolle-Dukes and Wilson-Ihejirika were thrilled that the 35 students, ages 11 to 14 years from The Bahamas, Jamaica, Canada and Scotland, excelled in their new learning environment.
Cloud Carib was a silver sponsor for the BETA Camp, sponsoring students from the Family Islands and donating laptops.
Olivia Dorsett, senior marketing and communications manager, said Cloud Carib is always eager to invest in the youth and especially in the field of technology.
“This is where we can nurture and engage with the next group of engineers and it is important for the country to start as early as possible. If we, as a nation, start young, it makes it possible for them to see the opportunities that they have now. And we want to help by paving the way to a path in STEM. We need these bright minds to be fed and developed.”
For the online BETA Hack! scheduled for November 20-22, students in grades seven through 12 who are interested in developing technology skills through hands-on STEM activities have a chance to participate. More information can be found at https://ift.tt/2KbJspv.
The post Imagination and innovation fuel BETA Camp’s virtual event appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/imagination-and-innovation-fuel-beta-camps-virtual-event/
No comments:
Post a Comment