June 21, 2019 | UHCL Staff
In a summer science camp geared toward middle school students, the College of Education’s Center for Educational Programs at University of Houston-Clear Lake hosted two, weeklong Hawk STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, math) Academy camps. Campers worked in research and development teams as they explored Newton’s laws of motion and engaged in interactive, hands-on activities to learn the science and engineering design process while participating in missions to solve real-world problems.
This year, campers focused on robotics and coding. Evelyn Miralles, internationally recognized virtual reality pioneer, former NASA technology strategist and UHCL’s associate vice president for strategic information initiatives and technology, discussed the importance and applications of virtual reality technology with the student engineers at a lunch presentation on June 18 as part of the camp’s “Lunch with a STEM expert” series.
Miralles discussed ways in which virtual reality was used in space training at NASA, detailing how astronauts trained using the technology to simulate floating in space. She stressed the need for engineers to do this complicated work, and that augmented reality was the next step in teaching astronauts how to execute highly technical maneuvers in space.
Find out more about UHCL’s Center for Educational Programs’ Kids U summer camps.
