From Monday to Friday of this week and next, groups of elementary school students are getting the chance to be exposed to professions and possible future careers at Sault College summer camps.
They'll be learning the basics in subjects they don’t get exposed to at the elementary or secondary school levels, such as robotics, civil engineering, drone technology and electrical instrumentation.
Sault College summer camp instructors want young people to start thinking about possible future careers in technology at an early age.
“It’s important at the Grade 6, 7 and 8 level for them to figure out what they want to do after high school,” said Marc Pilon, Sault College Civil Engineering & Construction program professor/coordinator.
“There are tons of options, especially now with the shortage of people in construction, engineering and the trades. It’s important to start this earlier than later and to get that hands-on learning. Getting them here reinforces that. We’re here to tell them you can do this in college and as a career,” Pilon told SooToday at the college on Tuesday.
Students sifted aggregate using an old fashioned sieve and hand crank as well as getting introduced to modern day push button machinery along with learning the difference between concrete and cement on Tuesday morning, while the afternoon was devoted to being introduced to drones and how they are used in civil engineering aerial land surveys.
“I’m excited to be here today,” said Mavis Barbet, heading into Grade 7 at F.H. Clergue French Immersion Public School in September.
“I’m excited to be learning new things and to see if I have an interest in them. Working with robotics was really fun. We got to control them, move them around and pick up objects. Maybe I’ll do that in college,” Barbet said.
“There are a lot of fields I could go into, civil engineering being one of them,” said Max Vommaro, going into Grade 9 in the fall.
“I’m looking forward to mixing concrete today and learning how to make it, learning all the components of it, as well as how to do land surveys using drones. I’ve played with drones but never did a professional survey with one. I like using both my brain and my hands,” Vommaro said.
“The students are learning robotics from the ground up, what a robot is, how to move it, how to program it and at the end of the sessions they'll be able to pick up objects and drop them off,” said Donovan Kennedy, Sault College Robotics and Automation program professor/coordinator.
“It’s all about building up their interest. There’s a need for young people to be interested in robotics and in the trades. I told them I took a robotics camp in Grade 9 at Lake State before we had robots here at Sault College and that put me on the path that I’m on today. If we can grab some students like that it would be amazing.”
Though new to robotics, students at Tuesday’s class were clearly into using the hi-tech devices.
“I really enjoy this. I’ve never studied robots, so it’s really fun. Sometimes it’s challenging but it’s fun,” said Blythe Elzinga, set to start Grade 8 in September.
Elzinga currently resides in France, home from Paris to visit Sault family members for the summer.
“I think I want to be an engineer, or an architect, or maybe both,” Elzinga smiled.
Twenty-four students from Grades 6 to 8 are enrolled in this week’s Sault College summer camp.
An Indigenous-focused camp with 12 registrants runs next week.
Sault College had a designated webpage with information on the camps as well as the registration form, with registrations starting back in March. The camps are offered at an enrolment rate of $130 per week per student with students’ parents or guardians responsible for the cost.
This marks the second year for Sault College summer camps, the institution hoping to run them again next year.