Cadet Lieutenant Commander Tiffany Parker, a rising senior and the cadet commanding officer of Middletown High School's NJROTC Unit, recently completed the Navy's Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Seminar held at the University of San Diego from July 18th through the 22nd. Tiffany was selected to attend from hundreds of applicants based on her record as a cadet and her potential for success after high school. The program has been conducted for three years and has won praise from both the college faculty and Navy leadership. While at STEM Tiffany and her classmates completed a series of practical engineering projects such as building and programing a robot and designing and building "water-walker" flotation devices. They also attended briefings on cutting-edge technological developments and the faculty of the University conducted short classes introducing the concepts they would use in the practical projects. It wasn't all work, after class the STEM participants went to the beach, attended fireworks, competed in a field day, and participated in a variety of other recreational activities. The STEM Seminar is a great program and the Navy pays 100% of the expenses for the entire week. To paraphrase Tiffany, "It was really fun and the food was great!" If you are a junior this year and think you might want to participate next summer, see CDR Wall or MSGT Willard. Here are a few pictures:
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| 30,000 feet above seal level, somewhere over America. |
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| Near sea level, San Diego, California. |
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| Tiffany (right) and an unidentified cadet trade face paint. |
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| One of the robots designed and assembled and then programmed to follow a pre-arranged path. |
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STEM participants at the beach.
(That's the Pacific Ocean--it looks just like the Atlantic, but it's larger and faces the other way.) |
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| A STEM exercise proving, once again, the universality of Newton's Law of Inertia. Or it could be a quiet time at the field day. |
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| Before: The two large pontoons are the water walkers prior to op-test. |
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| During: Cadet Parker walks on water. You can't see the pontoons, but they were there. |
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After: The exact moment at which the forces of gravity and buoyancy develop an upsetting arm (you'll learn about this in NS3!).
So much for walking on water! |
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| Graduation. It is possible that Cadet Parker is here, but she might have been at work. |
