School For The Deaf And Blind Relaunching Robotics, STEM Teams

students from the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf & Blind will visit the NASA facility in Fairmont as part of a kickoff in support of students’ new competitive robotics, rocketry, and aerial drone teams.

Flagpoles display four flags flapping in the breeze in front of a stone building of a reddish hue with blue-tinted glass windows running along the top edge. The building sits atop a green, grassy slope with a large model of a rocket in front.

Relaunching the robotics teams at the West Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind is about to get a boost. 

The NASA Independent Verification & Validation (IV&V) Program’s Education Resource Center (ERC) will welcome students from the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf & Blind (WVSDB) this weekend as part of a kickoff in support of students’ new competitive robotics, rocketry, and aerial drone teams.

WVSDB students and their new STEM coaches will visit the Katherine Johnson Facility in Fairmont Saturday for a series of hands-on workshops where they will build and launch model rockets, assemble and program robots, and learn to pilot and program aerial drones. 

“The NASA ERC has a long tradition of supporting robotics teams at the WVSDB, but sadly, many after-school initiatives were another casualty of the COVID-19 crisis,” said NASA ERC Program Manager Dr. Todd Ensign in a press release. “We are excited to be collaborating with WVSDB Superintendent W. Clayton Burch and the new coaches to not only restart, but also to expand competitive STEM opportunities for their students.”

Author: Chris Schulz

Chris is WVPB's North Central/Morgantown Reporter and covers the education beat. Chris spent two years as the digital media editor at The Dominion Post newspaper in Morgantown. Before coming to West Virginia, he worked in immigration advocacy and education in the Washington, D.C. region. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland and received a Masters in Journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

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