The 2012 Summer Transportation Institute (STI) program was held from July 23rd through July 27th on the Texas A&M University-Kingsville campus. The week long program featured several fun hands-on activities such as building bridges and constructing tetrahedral kites. New to this year, the program included a solar power curricula where the students were able to build working model solar vehicles. Within this module, the students also participated in activities exploring other types of renewable energy including wind power and biodiesels. Every year, the program provides fields trips for the students. This year, students visited the Port of Corpus Christi and the USS Lexington. There they learned about port operations and were briefed about future port expansion plans and how it will impact the local and regional economy with an anticipated 7,000 new jobs to be added, many in the area of transportation and logistics. But, without doubt, the highlight of the week for the students had to be building and racing cardboard canoes.
As always, the activities selected for the week emphasized math, technology, and science and allowed students the opportunity to work individually and as part of teams. This year, sixteen 7th, 8th and 9th grade students attended the Kingsville STI program. The group consisted of 8 girls and 8 boys. Fifteen of these students were minority students and 14 of the students were from low income school districts.
This unique program located in south Texas has been hosted annually by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), SWUTC and the College of Engineering at TAMUK since 2004. 144 students have participated in past programs, many of which continued on to pursue college degrees in engineering and science.
For more information on this program, please contact Debbie Jasek, [email protected]
