Regional students entering Grades 7-9 who attended the Ulster BOCES Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs Robotics Camp on August 5-8 spent the week honing their problem-solving and collaboration skills while designing and building with Vex robotics kits. They then used coding knowledge to get them to run on their own.
Students from Ulster and Dutchess County participating in the weeklong robotics endeavor at the Career & Technical Center worked in small groups honing their communication and collaboration skills in order to achieve a common goal and conquer the challenges put forth for them.

Camper Heleen Drucker, from the Saugerties Central School District, explained that the students were asked to build a robot that would move or carry as many “hubs” as possible into the designated building zones. In the design and modification process, Drucker and her teammate, Dylan Conte from the Arlington Central School District, went for a clear and direct plan. “A lot of them [robots] are very creative and interesting, but we didn’t do any of that because we had a strategic plan, which we thought was the best way to get as many hubs as possible,” Drucker said.

Career & Technical Center Principal Amy Storenski welcomed the idea of bringing STEM camps to Ulster BOCES and bringing the younger set in for new experiences. “The camp promoted essential 21st Century skills, like communication and collaboration, in a fun and engaging way. It also exposed students to coding and programming, which might encourage them to think about fields like engineering when they get older,” says Storenski.

Students at the Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs Robotics Camp hailed from the Highland, Kingston, Marlboro, Saugerties, New Paltz, Arlington, and Red Hook school districts.