Explorers post 92 and club 92 teaches STEM skills to youth

DOUBLE SPRINGS -  A new opportunity is presenting itself to help the youth of Winston County learn specific skills for future careers. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics can open new pathways in fields such as law enforcement, emergency medical services and fire fighting. Sponsored by the non-profit Free State STEM Foundation, the newly established Double Springs Engineering and Technology Exploring Post 92 and Club 92 met officially the first time Monday, June 21.
The post is open for grades 9-12, and the club for grades 6-8 in Winston County. While two separate organizations, both are meeting together until enough youth have signed up to take part in the fun. They both meet the second and fourth Mondays of each month at 7 p.m. at the American Legion cub scout room, located at 60 New Legion Road.
“Exploring in some form or another has been around since about the 1940s within the Boy Scouts,” Jeremy Blevins, advisor of the group, said. “It was originally for older youth, and over time, they have re-purposed exploring to focus on career opportunities.”
A pilot post was established earlier this year, which has now become the official post and club. The pilot post already chose a project to work on and hopes to have it finished by the end of the summer.
“The group plans its on activities,” Blevins explained. “The youth determine what it is they want to focus on.” Blevins mentioned the group does the work with little involvement from him.
“They have to think through all the math and scenarios to make it work,” he said. “I just give them guidance and point them to what their resources are, and to be there when they’re using tools to make sure they are safe and have the proper safety gear.”
The group chose a trebuchet as an engineering project. The trebuchet is similar to a medieval catapult but uses weights, countermeasures and a pivot. The group created a diagram and is currently working on constructing a one foot model. The plans are to then build a seven foot model which will shoot or throw watermelons or cantaloupe.
“There is a trebuchet simulator online that determined the length the arm needed to be, on the front and back of the pivot and how high the base needed to be,” Blevins said. “They’ve already looked at all the formulas (and have) the math on the board it took for them to plan it. It’s not only the engineering aspect but also the construction aspect of the project. They’ve had to work with different tools and types of materials to develop it.”
A future project beginning soon is learning how to write a computer program in the Python programming language.
“We’re building the laptops to use now,” Blevins said. “We’ve had some resources donated to us. Once I have those configured, I’ll have a book I’ll be using to teach them Phyton.”
The youth group has its own leaders, such as president and treasurer, too.
“When they have meetings, the president will call the meeting to order, the secretary reads the minutes of the previous meeting, the treasurer gives the report and then they talk about what activities they are planning,” he mentioned.
Blevins has been an adjunct instructor at Calhoun Community College and wanted to make sure the youth in this area have the same opportunities as the Huntsville area.
“One thing I see as a deficiency in (this) area is any technology opportunities,” he said.
Besides the meeting dates, the group interacts with each other through a collaboration service called Slack.
“They can load it as an app on the phone,” Blevins said. “All the members are able to talk to each other, they can ask me questions, we are able to interact between the meetings.”
Blevins also iterated this post and club is not in competition with other STEM-related activities.
Five interested children along with four registered adults are required to begin a post or club. The four adults for the new post and club are Blevins, Kathy Cole, Tammy Garrison and Bart Shannon.
To participate in either the post or the club, applications can be filled out during one of the meetings. Annual dues are currently $42 but may increase to $45 in August. For more information, contact Blevins at jeremy@jeremyblevins.com.