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JBSA News
NEWS | Nov. 13, 2017

Sailors talk STEM careers at local chamber expo

By David DeKunder 502nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs

Sailors from Navy Recruiting District San Antonio spoke to schoolchildren about STEM-related careers and put on scientific demonstrations during the 8th Annual San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce CORE4 STEM Expo at the Freeman Expo Hall in San Antonio Nov. 7-8.

NRD San Antonio was one of 38 participants, including government agencies, school districts, higher education institutions, organizations and companies at the expo, which was attended by approximately 2,500 seventh- and eighth-graders from 20-plus school campuses in the San Antonio area.

The objective of the expo was to get schoolchildren interested in exploring future careers in STEM, or science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Petty Officer 1st Class Ian MacKay, NRD San Antonio nuclear field coordinator for South Texas, said he talked to the middle school students about the STEM career fields in the Navy.

“STEM is really the way the nation is moving both in the civilian community and the military community,” MacKay said. “Every year we are becoming much more of a professional and technological service. So coming out here and talking to kids at an early age about those kind of fields, about the technology, the benefits and use of science and technology in the military is beneficial for their development and their future plans.”

Schoolchildren who visited the NRD San Antonio exhibit area also learned about how nuclear propulsion is used to power Navy aircraft carriers and submarines.

In addition, NRD San Antonio officers put on demonstrations of the launching of a plastic bottle rocket, held outside the expo hall, and of a battery that had magnets and copper wire attached to it, which produced an electromagnetic force that rotated the copper wire around the battery.

“They’re a couple of fun demonstrations, very simple ones that show some of the basic principles for physics and engineering,” MacKay said. “It’s useful so that we can show them how we utilize some of these very basic principles in higher end technology.”

Martin Lucio, athletic coach and physical education teacher at C.C. Ball Academy, said the Navy officers who spoke to his group of students gave them knowledgeable information about STEM careers.

“It’s great information as far as what direction they want to go with their education,” Lucio said.

Julia Renner, a counselor at Lowell Middle School, said she and her students learned new things about STEM-related careers in the Navy and about nuclear propulsion.

“I didn’t understand before how much nuclear power was involved in everything that they did and how much energy that it provided for the aircraft carriers and the submarines,” Renner said. “I like the demonstrations they did for the kids - that was good.”

MacKay said the students were very engaged in the discussions and demonstrations put on by NRD San Antonio about STEM topics.

“They are asking great questions,” MacKay said. “It seems like it’s a field that they are interested in, which is good for all of us.”

Based at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, the mission of NRD San Antonio is to recruit highly qualified officer candidates and enlisted future Sailors covering an area of 120,000 square miles, encompassing West Texas, Central Texas and South Texas, including the San Antonio and Austin areas.