Cat 5-themed STEM camp

PANAMA CITY, Fla. - Navy physicists and engineers collaborated with NW Florida area teachers to host an annual Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Summer Camp here for rising 9th to 12th grade high school students June 24-28. Panama City STEM Institute Director Ginger Littleton said it was second camp, which followed a previous week’s camp for rising 6th to 9th grade students. The camps are a partnership between the Navy and local schools, colleges and universities, according to Littleton said. The camps are designed to help produce more science-related graduates to fill the nation’s need for STEM career-professionals. The theme for this year’s camps was the study of Category 5 hurricanes, their destructive forces, and engineering-based cleanups required from a storm’s aftermath. The students attending the camp are “still living with the cleanup and rebuilding caused by Hurricane Michael” that made landfall in the area in October. “We structured our curriculum based on that because it’s something most students will never forget,” said Littleton. Dan Flisek, physicist for the Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City, and a Master Teacher at this year’s camp says the hurricane theme allows teaching several STEM-related sciences. “We have several areas of learning that we can relate to these storms and much of the post-storm cleanup that is required,” said Flisek. “For instance, our classes this year include: meteorology, electrical engineering, civil engineering, chemistry, and physics.” (Source: NSWC Panama City 07/01/19)