In 2017, two University of Iowa alums, Ed Moreno and Tracy Peterson, teamed up to bring pre-engineering camps to West Liberty, Iowa. This year, they are at it again.

Peterson, the director of the College of Engineering’s Diversity and Outreach Programs, says the pre-engineering camps have been taking place at ICCSD schools in Johnson County for the last five years. His goal, however, was to host a camp in West Liberty, a community with a large Hispanic population that is underrepresented in the engineering field.

The college’s connection to West Liberty began with Ed Moreno, the former water superintendent for the city of Iowa City, who co-founded West Liberty Dream Catchers in 2004 with his wife, Carol Moreno, a UI College of Dentistry graduate. The organization helps children who receive the free and reduced lunches in West Liberty schools become the first students in their families to attend college.

Moreno first became acquainted with the camp when Peterson invited him to check out a session at Northwest Junior High in Coralville a few summers ago.

“I thought it was impressive,” Moreno says. “I was inspired. I decided we were going to bring this to West Liberty.”

While the camp costs $225 to attend, Moreno secured grants to bring the cost down to $75 per student in West Liberty. The program was so popular in 2017 that there was a waiting list, Moreno says.

Ultimately, 80 students in kindergarten through ninth grade attended the West Liberty camp in 2017, Peterson says. For the younger students, the camp promotes the fundamentals of engineering and basic physical concepts such as gears, pulleys, wheels, levers, and axles.

“They can learn what the engineering design process is,” Peterson says. “It’s never too early to start. That’s kind of our basis, our motivation, to develop and enhance their problem-solving skills, their critical thinking skills.”

More advanced concepts are introduced to older students during the weeklong camp. Students work with robotics sets, laptops, and iPads to learn about robotics and coding. Peterson says students are asked to build a robot and program it to execute different tasks.

Most importantly, he says, the students learn about teamwork and perseverance.

“If this program you just wrote doesn’t work, let’s improve it, let’s go back to the drawing board,” Peterson says. “You see frustration from them, but once they get it, you see those looks of accomplishment.”

Peterson says demand for the pre-engineering camps exists across Iowa and beyond. The College of Engineering has partnered with the Meskwaki settlement in Tama to offer camps there and has Davenport, Cedar Rapids, and Des Moines on the radar for future camps.

In West Liberty, Moreno says he hopes the partnership can continue and prepare more students for college.

“We’ve really been pushing the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) stuff because it’s important,” he says. “Our goal is for these kids to aspire to go to college.”