At Stem Camp: Binary Coding, Cybersecurity, Programming

- 

Gathered around a roadmap laid across the tiled classroom floor, children watched robotic cars navigate the twists and turns of a street. With one final day to perfect their codes, the young computer programmers analyzed every command to drive forward, turn and reverse.

“I’ve really liked learning how to program robots. I like working as a team. When we mess up, we work together to fix it and find a solution,” said 11-year-old Quiyah Harris, of team QTSSS.

Harris and 29 other rising sixth-graders will present the science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills they learned during Decatur-Morgan County Minority Development Association’s inaugural STEM Camp at West Decatur Elementary.

“One of the passions I have is to make sure our minority students have exposure to some of the things that I had exposure to. They have to see what is possible and experience it,” said Claudette Owens, who holds a doctorate in physics and retired in February as director of the Space and Missile Defense Command’s Future Warfare Center Operations Directorate.