Champlain College Hosts Area Middle School Students To Explore Technology and Science Careers

Students Try Their Hand at Virtual Reality and Designing Video Games

Related Media

BURLINGTON, VT (05/24/2017) Nearly 150 middle school students from 10 schools - BFA-Fairfax, Browns River Middle School, Camel's Hump Middle School,Christ the King, Georgia Elementary, Shelburne Community School, St. Albans Town Educational Center, F.H. Tuttle Middle School, Williston Central School and Winooski Middle School - attended a day-long science and technology event at Champlain College on May 15.

The Reaching Out On Technology & Science (ROOTS) program is sponsored by the Champlain College Division of Information Technology and Science and marked its fifth year of working with area schools to spark interest in science and technology among middle school students with an emphasis on increasing diversity and female representation in these fields.

"At Champlain College and the ITS Division, we believe that the future of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) programs and STEM professionals relies on exposure and nurtured curiosity to students at an early age. We offer this program to local middle schools to help inspire these students and envision themselves attending college in a STEM field.," said Scott Stevens, dean of the ITS Division.

"This is particularly the case for middle-school girls where interest in STEM curriculum sees a significant decline. The participating middle schools are required to have at least half participation by females. This year, we had an exceptionally high rate of female participation and we couldn't be more pleased about it," he added.

Champlain College offered a series of three workshops for students in areas including website design, mobile forensics, cryptography, game design, mathematics, programming and workplace skills. The workshops were led by faculty from Champlain College's Divisions of Information Technology & Sciences (ITS) and Communication and Creative Media (CCM). Learn more about the programs at http://ow.ly/bMSu30bQAXv

Founded in 1878, Champlain College is a small, not-for-profit, private college in Burlington, Vt., with additional campuses in Montreal, Quebec and Dublin, Ireland. Champlain offers a traditional undergraduate experience from its beautiful campus overlooking Lake Champlain and more than 60 online undergraduate and graduate degree programs and certificates. Champlain's distinctive career-driven approach to higher education embodies the notion that true learning occurs when information and experience come together to create knowledge. Champlain College is included in the Princeton Review's The Best 381 Colleges: 2017 Edition. Champlain College is featured in the "Fiske Guide to Colleges" for 2017 as one of the "best and most interesting schools" in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. Champlain was named one of the "Most Innovative Schools" in the North by the U.S. News and World Report's 2017 "America's Best Colleges and #91 in the overall list of "Best Regional Universities in the North. For more information, visit www.champlain.edu.

Photos available at https://flic.kr/s/aHsm11WCpa Captions are included with each image.