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Region 5 STEM center director outlines programs, asks city for summer-camp support
Summary
The Region 5 STEM Center director described field trips, competitions, virtual instruction and summer camps that served roughly 1,900 students this year and requested local support to replace expiring federal ESSER funding for free summer camps.
Mark Ossoff, director of the Region 5 STEM Center, told the Sulphur City Council on March 10 that the center served about 1,900 students this academic year through field trips, after-school programs and competitions and asked the city and local industry for help replacing federal ESSER funds used to run free summer camps.
Ossoff said the center—serving multiple parishes and public, private and home-schooled students—operates K–adult programs that include robotics, drone competitions, a portable planetarium and hands-on engineering challenges. He said ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) funding that had subsidized summer camps is exhausted and that he needs about $300,000 annually to run the camps at the current scale; LyondellBasell donated $25,000 this year.
The request matters to Sulphur because Ossoff highlighted participation by Sulphur-area schools in robotics and drone programs and said the center helps local schools by aligning field trips to classroom standards. “We’ve been using extra money to buy kits for summer camp to pay our teachers,” Ossoff said. “I don’t want to charge students money to attend our STEM summer camps. I would love to be able to offer it for free.”
Ossoff described competition events coming up this spring, including an underwater robotics meet April 12 at McNeese State University and a “Can we live on Mars?” student challenge that was scheduled the Saturday following the council meeting. He also outlined a future-engineers after-school pathway that introduces simple machines, motors and sensors and moves students toward autonomous robotics.
Council members and staff asked about specific local school participation and certification for drone operations. A council member noted that Sulphur schools have been active in drone and robotics competitions and that risk-management approvals had only recently allowed flying again. Ossoff said the center provides virtual instruction—such as certified physics teachers delivered remotely—to support high schools across the region.
Ossoff provided a Baton Rouge area code for contact and said tours of the center are available. He described a public scale model of the solar system installed along First Avenue as an outreach example. The presentation did not include a formal request for a specific city appropriation on the council agenda; Ossoff’s remarks signaled a general fundraising need and an ask for local sponsorship and partnerships.
