High school students learn engineering at ASPIRE summer camps

In a packed UTTC classroom on a recent Wednesday, tables were littered with wires, circuit boards and snacks. Hunched behind their laptops, 36 students from seven tribes tapped away at their keyboards and talked to their table buddies while coding their own lockboxes.

They followed a PowerPoint presentation at the front of the room, consulted their lockbox manuals and picked the brains of their mentors — five engineers from Sandia National Laboratories and one from Kansas City National Security Campus — who moseyed around the room.

Although all the instructions could seem like a different language to an inexperienced person, the students were making progress and having fun while doing it.

Destiny Hinsley, a student at Standing Rock Community School, came back to UTTC this summer for her second year of the ASPIRE camp. While crunching code for her lockbox, she said that while the engineering projects can be frustrating, the feeling of accomplishment she experiences when she finishes a complex task is worth it.

This is the kind of attitude the camp hopes to encourage, said Alexa Azure, who started the ASPIRE summer camp to teach students about engineering in a supportive environment.

Azure, a citizen of Standing Rock Sioux Nation and the engineering department chair at UTTC, drew a contrast to her own school experience in Fort Yates.

“Before moving to Bismarck, I was failing math and English. And it’s not that I wasn’t capable,” she said, adding, “[ASPIRE] is meant to inspire people to get through high school and see that there are opportunities that they can pursue.”

ASPIRE, which stands for Advanced Synergistic Program for Indigenous Research in Engineering, helps middle and high school students develop electrical and mechanical engineering skills through various engineering projects and mentorship, skills they likely wouldn’t be exposed to in their own classrooms.

The ASPIRE camp is funded by a five-year grant program through the U.S. Department of Energy, which makes the camp completely free for students. Next year is the camp’s final year.

Middle school students will spend July 20-25 working on mechanical engineering projects, including soldering and robotics, while high school students worked on coding from July 6-11.

This year’s high school students came from the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, Navajo Nation, Oglala Sioux Tribe and Northern Arapaho Tribe. More high schoolers attended the camp than in previous years, with a return rate of 78%.

Returning students are a sign that the program is achieving its goal of making learning fun, she said.

“It’s a space where they can come be kids, learn and have fun” said Azure.

Apart from engaging in hands-on engineering projects, students also see where engineering skills can take them. Their mentors and two senior scientists are examples of what’s possible.

Stan Atcitty, of Navajo Nation, is a senior scientist and power electronics lead at Sandia National Laboratories. He has been mentoring the students who attend ASPIRE since its inception and said the most critical part of the camp is showing students what they can achieve if they set their minds to it.

“Kids will go back to their parents and say, ‘I had no idea this is what engineers do.’ That’s what we’re exposing them to here,” said Atcitty.

It also helps to tell students that they can learn how their PlayStation works, he said.

Back in the classroom, once the students’ brains were exhausted after a long day of work, their mentors took them to socialize and recharge with food and fun activities.

While Destiny said she preferred the engineering part of the day, her table partner, DeViegha Hinsley, who also goes to Standing Rock Community School, was looking forward to visiting McDowell Dam Recreation Area for the first time.