Manufacturing camp sets kids on a good trajectory

Duanesburg Central Schools technology teacher Mike Gauthier (right) and sixth grader Henry Spor launch Henry’s rocket at a recent NBT manufacturing camp. Images: Duanesburg Junior/Senior High School

Let the countdowns begin—it’s rocket day in Delanson.

Kids in this tiny town of barely 300 people near Albany, N.Y., generally don’t have a lot to do over the summer. But today marks the end of a week of hands-on discovery for this group of mostly fifth and sixth graders who came out for the Duanesburg Central Schools’ STEAM Camp, sponsored by Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs, the foundation of Fabricators and Manufacturers Association.

Today, the last day of camp, about 15 kids bustled around long tables in the middle school/high school cafeteria, adding finishing touches to their hand-built rockets—no ready-made kits here. Standing about 18 in. tall, the rockets represented a week of do-it-yourself construction that technology teacher Mike Gauthier hopes will convince his students they can figure things out on their own—a skill he has seen all but vaporize since he began teaching 17 years ago.

“Step by step, we’re accomplishing something that’s done right to make it work,” said Gauthier, who’s taught in the Duanesburg district for the past seven years. “The biggest thing that kids lack is that they don’t have the confidence to figure things out anymore.

“It’s very strange. In the age of cell phones, where everything’s right in their hands, if they’re not figuring it out on a screen, they can’t really figure things out on their own. It’s definitely something that I’ve observed—the kids don’t have that problem-solving and building ability like they used to.”

The campers readying their creations for launch today put that theory, and their handiwork, to the test.

First, they made sure the wine cork-sized engines, the igniters, were plugged securely into the bottom of their rocket bodies—cardboard tubes about 1.5 in. wide. Gauthier then helped fit the igniters with thin wires that connected them to a battery-powered ignition switch at launch time. Then, the kids carefully folded yellow plastic parachutes and tucked them into the top, above some wadding that protected the parachute from the heat of the igniter.

Across the room, the kids popped the plastic nose cones into place and inspected their work.

When everyone was ready, Gauthier and a group of fellow teachers led the ambling parade of junior rocketeers back to the school’s baseball diamond, where they had set up a makeshift launch pad near the pitcher’s mound. Campers watched from the first base line, cracking jokes and waiting in line to test their work.

Every rocket launched. Some curved this way or that, and some parachutes didn’t deploy properly, sending the rockets thumping into the ground before the kids could catch them.

Technology teacher Mike Gauthier (center) talks with eighth grade student Kieran Loftfield (left) as eighth grader Jaivaon Tetreault works on soldering a circuit board during the Duanesburg Central School District’s recent manufacturing camp.

For about half the group, though, every stage went as planned, topped off by a student catching a softly descending rocket to the cheers of the group. Sam, 11, said his friend Benji’s was the best. Watching Benji’s rocket blast straight up more than 100 ft., it was hard to argue.

“It just worked amazing,” Benji, 12, said proudly. “Pretty much everything worked on it like it was supposed to.”

The rockets weren’t the only thing campers built. The week before, a group of older kids built hydroponic self-watering gardens, using plastic bottles. Gauthier helped students build small Medieval-looking trebuchet-style catapults, introducing physics to them in a way that perhaps only kids can fully appreciate.

“They shot bouncy balls at each other for half a day,” Gauthier said with a smile.

“Oh, they loved it,” said camp organizer Kendra Shedina, who teaches eighth grade English. She said that the camps gave incoming middle schoolers a chance both to know their teachers in a more informal setting and also to meet kids in other grades as they do projects together. Even though the district is small (whole grades might be only 40 kids), students often don’t get a chance to mingle outside their immediate friend group.

“A lot of our incoming seventh graders who come into this building, they’re able to feel a little bit more comfortable in September because they start to know some of the staff members. It’s nice because they’re able to form relationships with kids that maybe they don’t normally socialize with during the school year. So, it’s really nice to see that.”

Social studies teacher Adam Randall said that an activity as simple as building rudimentary rockets is Step 1 in getting the kids interested in something other than the electronic devices that normally are in front of their faces for hours.

“I think it’s really important to give students the opportunity to make something with their hands, see the way that things work,” Randall said. “Just being able to put the phone down for a couple hours a day, go out and actually build something and accomplish something—I think it’s crucial to not only their development, but it’s also important for them in terms of really being able to find what they’re passionate about in their lives. I think that’s kind of the main reason we’re here, to help kids find that passion.”