Team APG hosted more than 400 area high school students for the installation’s second Science Technology Engineer and Mathematics (STEM) Expo Nov. 18.
Students visited one of three hubs across the installation: the command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) campus; the STEM Education and Outreach Center on APG North (Aberdeen); and the chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosives (CBRNE) campus on APG South (Edgewood).
The CBRNE campus hosted hands-on demonstrations and STEM activities showcasing leading Army technologies in areas like epidemiology, waste management, robotics, nutrition, and microbiology.
Suzanne Milchling, director of program integration for the Edgewood Chemical Biological Biological Center, said the scientists and engineers of Edgewood collaborate with each other as well as other agencies around the nation and the world on projects large and small. “It takes a lot of work to make a gas mask that will fit everyone in this room,” for example.
“Today you’ll see how STEM can make our lives better and impact the world,” she said. Students had the opportunity to use various methods to test soil samples in a mock “whodunit” crime scene, learned about sustainability and how different materials can be recycled to manage waste and how bacteria and diseases spread.
Other CBRNE lab activities included exploring how robotic arms used to handle dangerous materials function, building circuits, speakers and bridges and learning about the importance of physical and mental health.
Activities at the CBRNE campus were hosted by Public Health Command, the Chemical Materiel Activity, Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, PEO Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives, JPEO Chemical Biological Defense, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the Army Educational Outreach Program, spearheaded by the Army’s Research, Development and Engineering Command.
Regardless of which technology hub students visited, each workshop included information about the STEM degrees related to the technologies, helping students make a direct link between a path of study and an end career.
Throughout the morning students learned about the various summer programs available to students, as well as educational opportunities, internships, apprenticeship programs and scholarships through the Army and the Department of Defense.
Source: Adapted from APG News
