Copperas Cove Junior High holds STEM Night

By PAMELA GRANT

Cove Leader-Press

Copperas Cove Junior High School celebrated all things STEM (plus a few extras) with their STEM Night on Friday from 5-7 p.m., when students were invited to come and go as they pleased while taking part in a variety of fun activities, projects, and games. 

They also invited students from local elementary schools to attend as well.

“With the STEM program, we try to get the kids more involved in science and math,” said 8th grade science teacher, LaRissa Wilkinson. Wilkinson said that science is the future, and she wants to show people that science can be fun. “We really want to get the kids more invested. We want them to have fun and enjoy science and see that it’s not just a class that they have to take…I really want to see more girls getting involved too.”

Friday night’s STEM related activities included multiple coding stations including some making use of code.org and Tynker coding, they offered information on their STEM camp and Video Game Design Camp, they had cars, and they had robots that you could program and some that were pre-programed. 

“It’s fun to program,” said CCJHS 6th grader, Julian Aguilar. Aguilar showed off a robot that he’d been working on programing to close its arms around an object. He said that he really likes programming because it’s a challenge. For STEM night, Aguilar said that he was looking forward to getting to play chess, work on coding, and—of course—getting to enjoy some snacks.

Legos and dominos were set out as well. Other stations invited participants to work on mini projects such as building a catapult or a robot hand out of straws. The school also invited out the chess club and had several tables of chess matches going on throughout the evening.

“I think it’s fun,” CCJHS 7th grader Joseph Sharbeno about STEM Night. “It allows kids to see more of the spectrum.”

Sharbeno said he thought that the chess games were one of the most popular activities of the night and looked forward to participating in a few matches himself. Sharbeno is a member of the Chess Club.

“I like it because it opens up a lot of opportunities,” said Sharbeno about chess and Chess Club. “It allows for more creativity. Chess allows you to connect.”

“I like the problem-solving aspects of it,” said CCJHS 8th grader Krish Bhakta about why he enjoys the STEM program. Bhakta is part of the Number Sense Club and the National Junior Honor Society. Bhakta said that he hopes to gain knowledge and experience from the STEM program which will help him with his goal of becoming an engineer when he grows up.

“This is the first year that our UIL academics are coming back after Covid for competition,” said CCJHS Principal Jeffrey Shannon. “The district is really trying to amp up our technology and STEM systems.”

Principal Shannon said that events like the STEM Night are a way of building the interest in the program and helping get kids involved in something that interests them.

“It motivates them and can cause them to perform better academically,” said Principal Shannon.