GEARS stands for "Garrett Engineering And Robotics Society".

GEARS is a Non Profit, volunteer based organization, and our mission is to get young people excited about careers in Science, Technology and Engineering. (Membership Application)

Here's a picture and map of our location.

GEARS was formed in 2006, but the foundation was laid much earlier by educators like Chuck Trautwein and Arlene Lantz who have been running LEGO camps for years.

GEARS was created to provide a physical home for the existing programs, and a place to develop new programs. The County Commissioners generously let us use a building in Accident for our activities.

So what does GEARS do?

We try to find exciting ways to get kids to think like scientists and engineers without realizing they’re doing it. We let them build robots.

For example: Did you know that Garrett County has 8 robotic teams that compete at three different levels? Over 8 years, our teams have won 57 awards at the State and National level. Our mentors work with all of these teams to get them excited about Science and Technology.

We get our older kids to mentor the younger ones at summer tech camps.

We created special after-school robotics programs to get maximum exposure and diversity at the elementary level.

We even do Underwater Robotics camps, where students get to build their own robots, and run missions in a specially built Octagonal tank.

To find out more about GEARS, contact Phil Malone by calling (301) 387-2331 or emailing Phil.Malone(at)GEARSinc.org