Youth at the YMCA of Greater San Antonio Learn Life Skills via Robots inside the International Space Station
All young people should be prepared to think deeply and well so that they have the chance to become innovators, educators, and leaders. For the past three years, the YMCA of Greater San Antonio has been engaging youth in creative and inspiring activities through a program called Zero Robotics. Zero Robotics is a robotics programming competition where the robots are SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellites) inside the International Space Station.
This past August, teens from the Davis-Scott Family YMCA and Y Teen summer day camp site at Alazan-Apache Housing Community, traveled to NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston to compete in the Zero Robotics championship. The competition was no easy task as they were up against peers from all over the U.S. as well as teens from Russia. However, they maintained their confidence and at the end of the day their dedication and 7 weeks of learning how to code paid off. The state of Texas placed third overall and the team from the Davis-Scott Family YMCA ranked third out of ten teams in Texas’ category.
The YMCA of Greater San Antonio hopes to continue this program and engage additional teens in 2018. The youth currently impacted are underserved middle and high school aged youth who are engaging in an opportunity that would not have been presented to them if it hadn’t been for the Y. It is the Y’s hope that by engaging them in STEM projects they will want to pursue a higher education in a STEM field of study.
The STEM skills they obtain through the Zero Robotics Program will promote life skills such as teamwork and problem solving. The program also connects youth to adults in STEM related careers, providing them with positive support. For more information on the program, contact the YMCA of Greater San Antonio.