Ohio County STEAM Camps Bring Out the Creativity

WHEELING - Elementary school students have an idea for a dream city that includes a library with a petting zoo outside, hedgehogs, horses, and an outdoor birthday center complete with a ball pit.

They've also included a "niceness detector" at the entrance to "Friend Vill." If a person is determined not to be nice, a mist sprays out to make them nice, the students explained. Then they are welcomed into the city.

Elementary and middle school students from throughout Ohio County Schools are participating in science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) and robotics camps this week at Wheeling Park High School.

A robotics camp for middle school students also is happening, and all three camps are taking place concurrently in the Innovative Learning Center at WPHS.

The elementary STEAM camp is a "maker camp" where students set out to create, construct and make things, while the middle school camp also involves using multimedia and technology to explain their project, explained JoJo Shay, innovation coordinator for Ohio County Schools.

There are about 50 students in the elementary STEAM camp, 15 in the middle school STEAM camp, and more than 25 in the middle school robotics camp, she said.

Some of the elementary school students have used a button maker to create statement buttons to wear, or they are using a Cricut to emblazon their logo on bags supporting their project. The students get to take their crafts home, according to Shay.

Steenrod Elementary School rising fourth grade students Evelyn Fulmar, Rachel Scott and Tucker Rich have created "Friend Vill," depicting their idea of what amenities their dream city should include. Structures for the city are created from cardboard by the students.

Scott likes hedgehogs and books, and she wanted a "Hedgehog Library" in the city with a petting zoo outside. Fulmar wanted horses, and Rich is all about amusement parks. He also created "Tucker Tower" at its center, from which a nightly light show would emanate.

The students stressed the motto of "Friend Vill" is "Be nice, no fights, and live right." The niceness detector at the entrance to the city helps to assure only the best people enter, they explained.

The middle school maker camp is happening nearby. Landon Kelly, a student at Triadelphia Middle School, and Spencer Benedict, a student at Bridge Street Middle School, were seen collaborating on the construction of a popsicle stick house.

Their camp includes a talent show/presentation element, so they are photographing their efforts to build the stick house, and the photos will be combined into a video at the conclusion of the project.

The camps start each day at 7:30 a.m. and last until 1:30 p.m., but Kelly indicated he was inspired to get up and come each day.

"(I want) to build this," he said. "I'm eager to finish this."

Kelly doesn't want to be a tradesman, however, and has aspirations to be a pediatrician.

Benedict said he wants to be "an ESPN broadcaster."

Middle School robotics students were working to build VEX Robots from the most recent kit put out for next year's competition.

Katelyn Maloney, an eighth grade student at Triadelphia Middle School, already has had the experience of competing in the VEX Robotics World Championship in Dallas. She and Chris Zelek, a fellow eighth grade robotics student at Triadelphia, began work on a robot for the 2024-25 competition.

Maloney said she likes the robotics aspects of journaling and notebooking, and that sometimes she gets to build.

"I like learning the coding aspect," Zelek added. "It's really fun."

Maloney expects this year's competition to be even more intense.

"We all are learning more and more about it," she said. "But we're all getting to be like a really good team this year. We are all able to do different things very well. I think we'll be able to get very far."

Both Maloney and Zelek said they intend to stick with robotics through high school.

While the middle school students build their robots this week, high school students will follow them at robotics camp next week. About 40 are expected to attend, according to Shay.