BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) -- A group of middle and high school students are getting creative with their summer break by unlocking their potential to be future leaders in the world of STEM. Made possible by ExxonMobil, middle school student Sydney Murry and many others are a part of the award-winning Tapia STEM camp hosted by Southern University. It provides Baton Rouge middle and high school students with hands-on knowledge about the process and safety of carbon capture and storage.  During the camp, students learned about the capture of CO2 and its transportation to specially designated sites with the right geological properties for permanent, underground storage. Students experimented with hands-on STEM projects, such as building a model of an underground reservoir that has porous and impermeable rock layers using household items, such as Play-Doh™, pasta and beans, and using water and vegetable oil to demonstrate how carbon can be injected and stored in the reservoirs. Standout Students: High school student graduates while running successful business "They capture carbon through the air, and they put it in these underground tanks, basically we’re kind of doing a smaller model of it using certain ingredients like beans and pasta so we can try to filter out the water in the ground and put in the carbon, which is oil in this case," said Murry. It sounds simple, but these mini-scientists said it's easier said than done. Despite the challenges for some, there were still valuable lessons learned from the activity.  "In life, you're not going to meet the same people, you're going to have to work with different people. Even in the future with jobs, they don't require you to work with your friends. You have to go out of the box and work out of your comfortability," said Alton Washington, a student at the camp. The students learned the importance of implementing carbon capture and storage to help reduce climate change and its impact on the planet. "We have no planet B, so we need to be able to keep our planet in check. We need to take care of it while we’re on here," said Murry. The program also helped students learn and practice public speaking and collaboration skills as they worked together to present their final projects. "Never let anybody tell you that you can't do something and don't be scared to ask questions because that's how you get to know things," said Washington. 40 students in, near Baton Rouge chosen for ExxonMobil summer internship Dennis Shields, president of the Southern University System, says the camp inspires the next generation of students to pursue a future in STEM, and even if they don’t, they’re still heading in the right direction. "What this is an investment in their intellectual growth and as soon as they see that they can apply their intelligence and thinking to problem-solving, that leads them on to greater things down the line," said Shields. Click here to nominate a Standout Student. Latest News Ocasio-Cortez vows to file impeachment articles against Supreme Court justices Groom shot in the head during wedding party robbery attempt Democrats rage at Supreme Court for Trump immunity ruling: 'a travesty' Sotomayor scolds immunity decision for making presidents ‘king above the law’ Schumer: 'Disgraceful' Trump immunity decision will 'weaken' democracy