Grand Prairie (WBAP/KLIF News) – Engineers at Lockheed Martin spent Friday working with kids at a STEM academy in Grand Prairie. Students and engineers participated in projects together at Ochoa STEM Academy.
“We have been creating robots to battle like Sumo wrestlers,” one student says.
Students placed two robots in a ring to see which would force the other out first. Another station had students launch water bottles as high as they could.
“They’re learning and they’re having fun. They think they’re playing games,” says Nancy McGee, Grand Prairie Independent School District’s director of STEM education.
Engineers came from Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control facility in Grand Prairie.
McGee says the event showed kids their options when they grow up. When kids are younger, they may not learn details on how a robot works, but she says kids can start learning how to communicate and work together on how to solve problems.
“Partnerships like this help us prepare students for what we know now and jobs that we don’t know are going to be in the future,” McGee says.
Statistics from the Department of Commerce show workers in “STEM” jobs earn 26 percent more than people who work in jobs not associated with science or mathematics.
The Department of Education says college graduates with degrees in science, engineering or math earn an average salary of $65,000, compared to an average of $49,500 for graduates who major in education, social sciences or general studies.
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