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JAMESTOWN, NY (WNY News Now) — Hundreds of students from Western New York filled Jamestown Community College’s Gym Thursday morning for STEM Wars, a technology fueled competition for middle and high school students.
From rubber band catapults, drones, stick bridges, propelled cars, and even fighting robots, kids from around the area came to showcase their works. With some even bringing in bigger projects like a Forestville student who created a working pinball machine.
“Well it started actually last year we started, and we got all the body work done,“ explained Forestville Student Eric. “And we started it up again this next year working on it and we just refined everything. We put these sensors in here, and we worked on the paddle design a little bit.”
One pair of young innovators from Falconer had an idea, a new way to make PB&J.
“So we were sitting in class one day trying to come up with our project, and our class period is right before lunch, so we were hungry,“ stated Falconer Student Aidan Mccleery. “And we decided, let’s make a sandwich maker. And after about a week or so of the creative design process we decided on a peanut butter and jelly machine.”
“So when we came to the design, it was like we said, I’m hungry I want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, let’s make a maker,” explained Falconer Student Gage Swanson. “So we decided to come up with this idea.”
The event also includes a slew of different manufacturers from our area looking to cultivate and nurture this young talent.
“It’s such a cool event for these kids to come out and showcase their talents.“ said Rand Machine Representative Jackie Chitester, “There’s not too many opportunities for them to come out, build a bridge or a robot. It’s just a very cool opportunity for them to come out and show their stuff for once.”
In the end, local agencies believe this is a good way to introduce the next generation to the manufacturing industry.
“Manufacturing is very well and alive in our area,“ explained Nicole Allen, Senior Branch Manager at Adecco Staffing. “We need good talent all the time. A lot of life skills, a lot of personality skills, a lot of team building, and those are things that you can’t always just come natural. So, it’s good to build it up and keep it in the area.”
Other local talent scouts were eager to get local youth to stay in our area and develop their skills.
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