COLUMN: NSU IDEA Academy helps STEM, robotics be best in nation, world | Opinion

At the end of this past school year, as in the past, many area schools competed in robotics team championships.

These teams often do quite well in their various categories, and it’s no wonder. Regional teachers have a great asset to lean on in the robotics and STEM world – the Innovation Discovery Education Academy at Northeastern State University.

For the past 13 years, this NSU program has taught future and current teachers from around the nation the skills required of STEM and robotics, including critical thinking, problem solving, communication, and collaboration. The program has taught over 1,500 teachers and more than 4,000 children in academies and summer camps during this time. In addition, there have been three years of mentoring programs for teens through the program.

The program at NSU has provided significant opportunities that has had a positive effect on teachers and children not only in the area, but throughout the world. The program has received two international awards for innovation, has established business partnerships with Robotics Education and Competition Foundation and VEX Robotics Research, and has collaborations with NASA. More than 500 teachers have been trained in technology and STEM, and the group has trained future teachers at NASA Johnson Space Center. During COVID-19, the training continued with more than 1,000 teachers trained online.

The program has made its name known internationally, putting NSU and Tahlequah on the global map by taking future teachers to train other teachers, students, and families in the Vienna International School and the Amadeus International School in Austria, where students gained experience for their careers teaching robotics, STEM, and coding. There have been two trips to Haiti, with one being to the School for Girls to teach STEM and robotics and the other to train Haitian teachers to continue the program. This year, the group is returning to Austria to train teachers in several towns and to study in the country’s largest biosphere.

Here at home, the group has worked on the Pine Ridge reservation in Wounded Knee, South Dakota, training teachers in technology, teaching STEM to area students, and recruiting students to NSU. The NSU team was honored to meet with Lakota elders and spiritual advisers, and to take part in tribal cultural activities. In Florida, students worked with an NSU alum in a Seminole charter school by teaching robotics and hosting a STEM night. In Los Angeles, students worked in three separate schools teaching students robotics and hosting family STEM nights.

NSU graduates have trained and became judges for the largest robotics competitions in the world. Many have taught internationally, and others work in science and technology companies, such as NASA, MicroChip, and Northrup Gruman. However, having a love of the state and of children, the majority have become teachers here in Oklahoma, sharing their skills in critical thinking and problem solving with Oklahoma’s youth.

The program isn’t just about promoting the NSU students. There are over 200,000 pieces of equipment and supplies available to teachers, students, families, and others in the community to use. This makes the program a liaison among the university, schools, and town of Tahlequah itself, showing a sign of community partnership and shared support.

The program has also offered summer camps in many years, with students who might otherwise have no learning experiences the opportunity to continue their growth and development in not only the sciences, but in other life skills, such as collaboration, problem solving, and negotiation techniques.

The NSU IDEA Academy is a jewel, and one teachers and the public should take advantage of when the need arises. We are lucky to have it while we do. Hopefully, it will be available for years to come.

Randy Gibson is the CEO of RDG Communications Group LLC.