Students at Texans Can Academy – Fort Worth Lancaster and Texans Can Academy – Westcreek were recently granted the opportunity to get a hands-on experience with STEM Robotics professional, Raul Deleon, in a STEM Robotics Camp Session.  Faculty members from Fort Worth Lancaster and Fort Worth Westcreek, Monique Lewis-Glover and Ouiza Mahouch, assisted with assembling the program.  Raul Deleon is an engineer with NASA who meets with the students three times a week to share his knowledge about robotics and the importance of using coding in everyday life. 

STEM, an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, are a series of career fields and focuses that are collectively considered the core tools for creating an advanced culture. During the STEM Robotics Camp Session students at Texans Can Academies – Fort Worth Lancaster and Fort Worth Westcreek were prompted to draw their very own version of a robot and then were paired in groups to learn the step-by-step process on how to create a robotics program using animal language.

The students then proceeded with their learnings by using and editing their self-made programs to bring their design to life with LEGO® Robots.

“It’s important to us to be able to offer this kind of exposure to our students,” said William Arevalo, principal at Texans Can Academy – Fort Worth Lancaster. “STEM courses aren’t just classes you study for to get a job in software – they help you in the medical, financial, journalism or even political fields as well.”

Research by Change the Equation states that STEM jobs are projected to grow by 13% between 2017 and 2027. This percentage is compared to nine percent for non-STEM jobs – with positions in computing, engineering, and advanced manufacturing leading the industry.

Texans Can Academies is a non-profit network of 13 dropout recovery public schools in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, Houston and San Antonio. Students at Texans Can Academies have been given a second chance at life with the opportunity to pursue their dreams. The schools believe in providing the highest quality education for all students, especially those who have struggled in a traditional high school setting, to ensure economic independence.

For more information on Texans Can Academies, please visit www.texanscan.org.