Robotics team makes Cayman proud at FIRST Global Challenge 2018
Adrian Phillips-Hernaez, Ethan Cronier and Joe Allom-Perez, together known as the Cayman Islands’ first robotics team, have a lot to tell when they return to school next week after participating in the FIRST Global International Robotics Challenge on 16 - 18 August in Mexico City, Mexico. Accompanied by technical advisor Von Ryan Abrantes, physics teacher at St. Ignatius Catholic School and team manager, Glenda McTaggart, Dart Education Programmes manager the team represented Cayman amongst over 160 countries.
Cayman robotics team heads to Mexico City for Global Challenge
Dart Minds Inspired is proud to announce its sponsorship of the Cayman Islands Robotics team as it travels to Mexico City to participate in the FIRST Global Challenge, an Olympics modeled robotics event.
MI Academy sets sail with Cayman's future nautical engineers
Shipbuilding has always held deep intrinsic value for the Cayman Islands, once as a primary source of income and now, an emblem of our culture. Our maritime history is thoroughly documented in books, paintings, through oral tradition and even music.
Today, local teenagers are more likely to build virtual ships on their mobile devices than in real life, but a few fortunate students were able to design, build and sail their own crafts at the MI Academy Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering camp.
Cayman Compass: Cayman team preps for ‘robotic Olympics’
A team of students from Cayman will travel to Mexico City next month to take part in what is billed as the “robotic Olympics.”
Dart Minds Inspired puts Caymanian students to work
Twenty Caymanian students, the first wave of Dart’s 2018 Minds Inspired summer Work-X students, are off to a promising start and working in areas as diverse as Finance, Marketing, Business Innovations, Human Resources and IT.
“Work-X is competitive, we regularly receive more than 100 applications for 30 spots each summer” said Glenda McTaggart, Manager Education Programmes.
Grandmaster Hou Yifan victorious at chess challenge fundraiser
Renowned chess player Grandmaster Hou Yifan brought her rooks and bishops to the Kimpton Seafire Resort and Spa for the second Grandmaster Corporate Challenge fundraiser in support of the Chess in Schools programme.
Aqua Lasers Too and Brac Bots finish strong at International SeaPerch Challenge
Congratulations to the John Gray Aqua Lasers Too and Layman E. Scott Brac Bots for representing Cayman at this year’s International SeaPerch Challenge at the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth.
How to make your summer work experience work for you
You swiped right. Submitted your application. There were emails exchanged, an interview and maybe even a walk around the office. They liked you. They swiped right. A match!
How do you make it more than just a summer fling?
Minds Inspired announces STEM teaching award
Dart's Minds Inspired programme has become well known for its support of academics focused on STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — subjects.
Many Cayman Islands students have been recognised over the years for their achievements in various STEM-based initiatives. On May 25, Dart announced it would recognise another important element in its STEM initiative: the educators themselves. The Dart Minds Inspired Award for Excellence in Teaching STEM will launch with the start of the 2018/2019 academic year.
Camana Bay Times: Mi Academy Offers Marine Engineering and Naval Architecture Camp for Cayman's Students
In years past, becoming a teenager in the Cayman Islands meant one thing to a young male: he would go to sea. Today, time away at sea for male teenagers is most likely a short jaunt to Rum Point across the North Sound.
The success of last year’s Mi Academy Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering camp, which is an initiative of Dart’s Minds Inspired programme, shows that young males — and some females — are still interested in connecting to the sea in meaningful ways.
Cayman Compass: Telescopes focus on Cayman for astronomy conference
The late Dr. Bill Hrudey would have been proud to see Cayman’s first astronomy conference being held in his name next week.
Minds Inspired and Dart Scholar: A Story of Two Brands
Ken Dart’s strong belief in the power of education was influenced by his family who long believed in the transformative power of education - both for the individual and for society in general. Dart translated this belief in the power of education into exciting programmes, initiatives and work experience – Minds Inspired; and Cayman’s pre-eminent local scholarship programme, Dart Scholar.
STEM: Impacting and changing the future
STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics. These subjects are interwoven in everything today's students do and learn — and more importantly, they have a role to play in every industry and every career: from art — the impact of arts learning on the ability of the brain to remember, for example — to health, and the ability of an app to interpret data and determine whether breast tissue samples are benign or malignant.
2018 SeaPerch winners: local underwater robotics challenge sets tone for region
The John Gray Aqua Lasers Too and Layman E. Scott Brac Bots are representing the Cayman Islands at the International SeaPerch underwater robotics challenge in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, U.S., this June.
Meet Glenda McTaggart, Minds Inspired's inspirational manager
Six years after launching the first Minds Inspired scholarship, Glenda McTaggart now manages a programme that includes 19 scholars, work experience for 40 summer students and a busy calendar of events based on science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM.
Minds Inspired Students Learn About Ethical Hacking from Kevin Mitnick
Minds Inspired hosted students from the Cayman International School, Cayman Prep and High School, Clifton Hunter High School, John Grey High School, St. Ignatius High School and the University College of the Cayman Islands for a small, invitation-only event, with special guest speaker Kevin Mitnick, once an FBI most-wanted hacker turned most-sought after computer security consultant. This opportunity was made available to Minds Inspired scholars and the students by the 2016 Cayman Alternative Investment Summit.
Minds Inspired Welcomes Summer Student Chelsea Nelson for Fourth Year
Dart welcomes back Chelsea Nelson for her fourth summer with the company. Chelsea returned to the team in March 2015 to complete the credit requirements of a university internship which counts as final credit to her degree. Chelsea is one of more than 30 work experience students Dart welcomes and invites back every year as a part of the Minds Inspired Work Experience programme.
Minds Inspired Mathematics Challenge draws Cayman's top students
Thirty students, representing six high schools across Grand Cayman put their mathematical abilities to the test at this years’ Minds Inspired Mathematics Challenge, the third year of the Dart sponsored event on Friday, 8 May in the Sir Vassel Johnson Hall at the University College of the Cayman Islands.
Minds Inspired teams up with Code(Cayman)
Once considered a specialist skill reserved only for computer geeks and programming professionals, nowadays coding is considered an essential ability for students of all ages and interests.
Dart donates laptop to Junior Achievement
Every year, Dart supports the Cayman Islands Junior Achievement (JA) programme by sponsoring a company and recruiting Dart staff who volunteer and serve as business mentors to the company’s executives and employees (students). This relationship has grown over the years because JA aligns closely with Dart’s Minds Inspired education initiatives and provides students with practical, hands-on experience in entrepreneurship, production, marketing and sales, and financial literacy.
Foil Boat STEM Activity
Minds Inspired was recently invited to visit Stop Now And Plan (SNAP) camp, organised by the Cayman Islands Family Resource Centre, to lead campers in a STEM-themed activity.
The five-day camp, supports young children through activities that teach how to handle emotions, how to make better choices and problem solving skills. Different community organisations volunteered to lead a thought provoking activity that also demonstrated how learning can be fun.
Solar Bugs Linked to STEM
The future is now and it involves solar-powered bugs. That was just one element of the eighth international STEM conference held last month at the University College of the Cayman Islands.
The three-day conference, which featured a local and international line-up of speakers, involved presentations and events focused on the STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. That's where the solar bugs came in.
Interschool Chess Tournament A Success
More than 120 students from 8 local schools participated in the inaugural Interschool Chess Tournament sponsored by Dart Minds Inspired. Hosted by Cayman International School, the competition was held on Wednesday, 27 February, at the Arts and Recreation Centre in Camana Bay.
The tournament, which featured round robin and championship rounds with divisions for primary, middle and high school students, lasted for approximately four hours.
Minds Inspired and CUC Encourage Students to Dream Big
In celebration of Engineering Week, Dart Minds Inspired and Caribbean Utilities Company (CUC) partnered to host a special screening of “Dream Big: Engineering Our World” for a select group of local high school students on Friday, 22 February.
Approximately 130 students from seven high schools across Grand Cayman gathered at the Camana Bay Cinema to watch the award-winning documentary feature and experience presentations from 10 engineers from both Dart and CUC.
Kraken the star attraction at STEM Carib Conference robotics session
It was standing-room only as the Cayman Islands Robotics team showed off their robot, Kraken, to STEM enthusiast attendees at the STEM Carib Conference hosted by the University College of the Cayman Islands (UCCI) and Harrisburg University. The breakout session showcased the team’s journey to the FIRST Global Challenge in Mexico City this past August.