HCC West Loop Campus to serve as host site for Comcast Techpak STEM event
Oct 2, 2017
Nearly 600 students will put learning into overdrive as they engage the left side of their brains to participate at Comcast Techpak, Saturday, October 7. This daylong event is coordinated by the Houston Hispanic Forum, creators of Career & Education Day, and sponsored by Comcast and Webtropolis to ignite interest in STEM learning. From 11:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. students will gather at Houston Community College – West Loop Campus (5601 West Loop S, Houston, TX 77081) to engage their critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills to create things like Lego engineering, aviation, App coding, and drone operations.
Students and parents from across Houston will participate in this special STEM event and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers will provide volunteer engineers to assist students in their various projects. Their participation also puts students in touch with real-life examples of where their STEM studies could lead into careers.
“The STEM career pathway is our most successful panel at Career & Education Day,” said Sineria Ordoñez, Interim Executive Director of HHF. “We are excited to bring more in-depth STEM curriculum with hands-on opportunities for our students to continue their curiosity for learning. This is a rewarding experience as we continue to collaborate with our partners to incorporate new design processes for student’s post-secondary success.”
Specifically, at Comcast Techpak, students will participate in age-appropriate activities including, Lego engineering and aviation for elementary students, coding robotics, web development and app coding for middle school students, and high school students will focus on cybersecurity, open sources, 3D printing and drone operation.
“This Comcast Teckpak is an amazing opportunity for HCC to share the great technology resources that we have with the community,” said Frederick Heard, MPPA, Dean of Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence at HCC. “This event will get younger students exposed and excited about emerging technologies that they may not have the opportunity to experience otherwise.”
Children at Risk has found that by 2020 65 percent of jobs will require a post-secondary education and currently only 33 percent of adults aged 18 and older have post-secondary degrees. Events like Techpak are geared to prepare youth to compete globally through analytical thinking and design learning that fosters creativity and innovation.
“Investing in programs that support empowering communities through technology and innovation, such as increasing digital literacy skills, is one of the cornerstones of our community investment strategy,” said Ralph Martinez, senior vice president for Comcast’s Houston region. "We’re thrilled to be working with the Houston Hispanic Forum to help prepare these students and their families to succeed in the global digital economy.”
Students and parents can still register at Event Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/comcast-techpak-registration-37363510265.
More information about efforts supported by the Houston Hispanic Forum can be found at www.hispanic-forum.org. Follow along using hashtag #comcasttechpak.