Sailors, engineers, scientists, technicians, and support personnel at NAWCTSD, represent a wealth of knowledge and expertise in a wide variety of training, engineering and science topics. NAWCTSD provides mentors and job shadowing opportunities for students attending partner schools. Also, NAWCTSD provides support for STEM-related events/activities at area schools. Examples include exhibiting at career fairs, teach-ins, STEM nights, science/Olympiad fair judging, robotics club mentoring and workshops, lending library of DoN STEM kits and materials, professional development for teachers, and online access to shared STEM resources.

FIRST Robotics

NAWCTSD scientists and engineers mentor/coach Middle School FIRST Lego League (FLL) teams and High School FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) or FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) teams. Teams can be formed in public, private or homeschool groups, and register to either obtain materials to learn robotics basics, or may additionally register to compete in FIRST Robotics competitions. Information on FIRST Robotics may be found at the FIRST website.

I/ITSEC Student Tours

NAWCTSD provides employee-led tour guides for student tours at the annual Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC). I/ITSEC showcases the latest in training and modeling & simulation technologies. Tour guides are scientists, engineers, program managers who share their knowledge and experience in M&S/Training System Development/Delivery. More information about I/ITSEC and student tours may be found at the I/ITSEC website.

Material World Modules, Scientists and Engineers (S&Es) Co-teach

Materials World Modules (MWM) are hands-on, inquiry and design-based units for middle and high school students. MWM connects science and mathematics in the classroom to contemporary issues. NAWCTSD provides MWM kits and mentor support for teachers and students. More information about MWM may be found at the Materials World Modules website.

Science Olympiads

Science Olympiad competitions are like academic track meets. Each year, a portion of the events are rotated to reflect the ever-changing nature of genetics, earth science, chemistry, anatomy, physics, geology, mechanical engineering and technology. By combining events from all disciplines, Science Olympiad encourages a wide cross-section of students to get involved. Emphasis is placed on active, hands-on group participation. Through Science Olympiad, students, teachers, parents, principals and business leaders bond together and work toward a shared goal.

SeaPerch

Sea Perch is a hands-on project-based underwater robotics engineering program that allows students to build their own remotely operated underwater vehicle. Sea Perch is managed by the non-profit, RoboNation, Inc., and is sponsored by the Office of Naval Research and the National Naval Responsibility for Naval Engineering (NNRNE) program. NAWCTSD has coordinated training of NAWCTSD S&Es with teachers and trainers from Seminole and Orange County Public Schools, the Girl Scouts, Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Florida, the Orlando Science Center (OSC), and the YMCA. As a result of this training, SeaPerch clubs have been formed in Seminole County Public Schools, the OSC continues to offer SeaPerch summer camp sessions, the Army PEO STRI continues to use SeaPerch in its summer intern program, and the YMCA uses the SeaPerch activity in its after school programs. More information about SeaPerch can be found at SeaPerch Homepage

Summer Interns

Every summer, NAWCTSD scientists and engineers (S&Es) mentor high school and college undergraduate/graduate students through the Office of Naval Research (ONR) internship programs, Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP) and Naval Research Enterprise Internship Program (NREIP), and the DoD High Performance Computing Modernization Program’s Joint Educational Opportunities for Minorities (JEOM) internship program. SEAP places academically talented high school students with interest and ability in science and mathematics as apprentices in Department of the Navy laboratories for eight weeks during the summer. NREIP is a ten-week intern program designed to provide opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to participate in research, under the guidance of an appropriate research mentor, at a participating Navy laboratory. Students from the local area high schools, the University of Central Florida and other universities were mentored by NAWCTSD S&Es this past summer.