Posted on

3d Pens, Nervous System and Physics!

What a fabulous day Thursday was today. This is such a great group of students! They are really exploring, investigating, asking good questions, and staying curious about everything that’s going on. We’re thankful for all the support for the camps each year. We are completely self-funded now, which was a goal of our previous grant. We are thankful for UK kicking in some money for financial assistance this year so we can keep creating opportunity and access for students and families. Several of our food vendors – Schlotzsky’s, Domino’s, and City BBQ – give us discounts which allows us to provide options for food for our students. And of course our awesome staff – inservice teachers, graduate students, preservice teachers, UK staff and faculty, and our high school mentors – we could do not anything without them! This year, we’ll serve just over 500 students for the See Blue See STEM summer experiences. It’s sometimes hard to believe that Dr. Craig Schroeder, Mark Evans and Dr. Bruce Walcott started this with just 8 students in 2010 at Jessie Clark Middle School. My how we’ve grown!

Initial flight testing on the first airplane designs

In the red and blue groups, they got to spend time with Dr. Robin Cooper and his team in the labs today. They learned about the nervous system and how it interacts and runs the different parts of the body. They got to conduct investigations on crayfish – watching their reaction time, learning how they respond to different stimuli, and learning about why we study crayfish. They visited the medical outreach lab where they got to see and hold different organs – the brain, spinal cord, and heart are big favorites! In the purple and brown groups, they spent the day with Dr. Jonathan Thomas learning about physics in the context of airplanes. They learned about the different forces that help make an airplane fly and then they constructed different types of airplanes and tested them out. The designs get really creative as they construct the different types, and this group really embraced it! In robotics, they had a creative build day and ended up having a dance party with their robots! This group of students really is a creative group and embraced it hard core when making their dancing robots today. It was so awesome to see!

One of the creative dancing robots!

In the yellow and green groups, they spent the day with Dr. Cindy Jong immersed in the world of mathematics from a very unique perspective – origami and 3D pens. The students were really surprised about how we can use origami to create models and understand things in mathematics. They came home with some pretty awesome models! The 3d pens are fantastic way for students to get creative and show that part of themselves off. We use 3d pens to form models, especially on-the-spot. In robotics, they finished up different maze challenges that allowed them to explore and use their different robot sensors. Several started on the First Lego League challenge and worked on writing more challenging code, but with less steps.

In their own words…

  • sometimes bugs or thangs like that can regrow there diffrent parts of there body.
  • That I whant to catch a crayfish
  • sensory nerves send messages from our hands to our brains
  • that you had two kines of nearves
  • That the heart does not look like the heart you draw
  • I think it’s fun to modify air planes and make them go faster.
  • How to make an origami trioctohedran.
  • It was fun and creative
  • I learned habout how to use a 3-D pen, and how to make a 3-D oragami cube.
  • How to make a stellated octotetrahedron.
Creating with the 3d pens!

Conversation Starters…

Red/Blue Groups

  • How do our senses work with our nerves in our body?
  • Why do we study crayfish? Why is the tail so important?
  • Were you able to taste the cinnamon today?
  • Did you hold any of the organs? What did they look like? What did they feel like? Did you think they would look different than they did?
  • What did you build with your robot today? What did you make it do? Did your robot do what you thought it was going to do?

Purple/Brown Groups

  • What are the 4 forces of flight?
  • How does an airplane fly in the air?
  • What different materials did you use to build your airplane today? Did your designs work the way you thought they would? What was frustrating about building your airplane? What was fun about designing your airplane?
  • What did you build with your robot today? What did you make it do? Did your robot do what you thought it was going to do?

Yellow/Green Groups

  • Why do we use origami to model different objects in mathematics? What did you enjoy about origami? What was frustrating about origami?
  • What type of object did you build and model using origami today?
  • Why do you think 3d pens could be useful in the future?
  • What did you create today with your pen?
  • What challenges did you complete with your robot? What has been your favorite thing about coding this week? What has been the most challenging?

Photo of the Day…

Posted on

Halfway Through!

Another fantastic day with this group is in the books! We cannot get over how wonderful the weather has been. We’re usually battling nearly 100 degrees by now and so this has been a welcomed change for our groups this week. While they’re at camp, students get a small flavor of college life by walking to their different sessions. Some walks are longer than others, but they are enjoying being outside and getting some exercise in between sessions. We wish we had a playground for them during the day, but college campus’ just don’t have them 🙂

The red and blue groups today were with Dr. Jonathan Thomas where they did some physics. They learned about airplanes and the different forces that help them fly. They then created all different types of paper airplanes to test out the different types of forces and what affected them. They had a lot of fun testing out their different designs. In the purple and brown groups, they were with Doug Klein in the College of Engineering’s Makerspace lab. They got to see the 3D printers in action, the lasercutter, and other equipment available to the UK students to use to design their products and prototypes for their projects. They got to use some of the software that UK students use to help design the projects. Most came home with a 3-d printed cube. In robotics, they designed race cars and tested them out. We had different kinds of races – who could go the fastest. Who could go the slowest, but still move. Who could go in a straight line. There were some very creative race cars out there! They are really enjoying the robotics, especially the lego-building part. They are doing really well with the coding – it’s really amazing how fast kids pick it up and use it!

In the yellow and green groups, they had fun with Dr. Robin Cooper and his graduate students today. They conducted some small experiments about how the body uses its different senses and communicates them to the brain. They got to hold a brain and spinal cord (if they wanted) and other organs. The students were amazed at what they looked like and felt like! In robotics, they continued with their challenges. One of the favorites today was the C-A-T-S CATS CATS CATS Mat – The groups are really doing a great job!

In their own words…

  • Glider planes need to stay at a downward pich.
  • How to make a Ufo
  • I DiDn’t now Some planes Dont need enigines to fly
  • That you can 3D modle dnt lazer cuter
  • How machines printed on wood, metal, and plastic
  • I liked that we got to make 3D objects on the computer.
  • I didn’t know what Brains were like.
  • we have tail!!!!!!!
  • I learned about how the nerves and how they differ in the body.
  • Crayfish have an attack stance.
  • I didn’t know that crayfish use sensors And motor sense just like humans but Just with their tails
  • I would like to learn more about neurons, because one of my dream jobs is a neurologist.
  • I liked that we got to see crawfish, two human hearts, a human lung, and a human brain.

Conversation Starters…

Red/Blue Groups

  • What are the 4 forces of flight?
  • How does an airplane fly in the air?
  • What different materials did you use to build your airplane today? Did your designs work the way you thought they would? What was frustrating about building your airplane? What was fun about designing your airplane?
  • What kind of car did you build today? What kind of code did you use to make it go? Did your car move the way you wanted it to?

Purple/Brown Groups

  • What was your favorite machine today? How did it work?
  • What would you like to create with one of the machines?
  • What is a 3d printer? How did it work?
  • What kind of car did you build today? What kind of code did you use to make it go? Did your car move the way you wanted it to?

Yellow/Green Groups

  • How do our senses work with our nerves in our body?
  • Why do we study crayfish? Why is the tail so important?
  • Were you able to taste the cinnamon today?
  • Did you hold any of the organs? What did they look like? What did they feel like? Did you think they would look different than they did?
  • What did you get your robot to do today? What is challenging about coding with your robot?

Picture of the Day…

Posted on

Tuesday STEM Fun!

What another awesome day! The students have really settled into the routines of the day and are having a good time learning while they are playing. The cooler weather has just been an added bonus this week!

The red and blue groups got to spend the day with Dr. Janet Lumpp and investigating circuits. They had a blast building their own circuits and completing the different challenges to see how to open and close circuits. The purple and brown groups spent time with Dr. Bruce Walcott today. They played with some of the arduinos and talked about some circuits. They investigated Faraday flashlights and talked about all the different kinds of engineering opportunities there are and the different types of engineers. They also got to build simple motors and were amazed about how easy it was! In robotics, they were very creative and got to build different animals today. They decided how they wanted their animal to move and planned from there. While there were some basic building directions the students followed, this is a very creative group and they liked to add embellishments 🙂

The yellow and green groups had a blast with Dr. Haley Bergstrom and her team. They learned about how different parts of the body work together and how we can maximize performance with our bodies. They did some modeling and exercised outside – completing some investigations to gauge reaction time, etc. Thank goodness for the cooler weather today! In robotics, they dove deeper into their challenges. Most got through the maze challenges today and are ready to string together more components tomorrow. We have some more advanced groups this week, and our robotics instructor has been awesome at differentiating the challenges to make sure the students are building on their previous knowledge.

In their Own Words…

  • Circuits have a lot of cipes
  • I didn’t Know what was inside a remote.
  • Yes, it was fun codeing and creating place ments for electric-circuits
  • I thought it was cool how you chose what you wanted your ozobot to do and it would do it.
  • how to check your pulse.
  • I would like to learn more about my heart rate and how my heart works.
  • Electro magnets are so strong.

Conversation Starters…

Red/Blue Groups

  • What does the inside of a computer look like?
  • How did you build your circuits?
  • What makes the circuits work?
  • What did you build with your robot today?
  • What did you get your robot to do?

Purple/Brown Groups

  • What is an electromagnet?
  • How did you make a motor? Did it go fast or slow?
  • What did you build with your robot today?
  • What did you get your robot to do?

Yellow/Green Groups

  • How do our lungs and diaphragm work together?
  • How did your jump compare to an NFL athlete?
  • How did you build a model of the lungs and diaphragm? What did it show you?
  • What challenges did you complete with your robot today? What do you want to accomplish tomorrow?

Picture of the Day…

Posted on

Week 2 is off and running!

And we’re off and running for the second week of UK See Blue See STEM Summer Camps 2019! It was a bit of a muggy start, but the cool breeze and weather this afternoon was a welcomed event! We have another 160 students this week, including our partnership with Burgin Independent Schools and Consolidated Baptist Camp coming this week.

We have a goal to post a blog post each night this week with some highlights from the day and some conversation starters. [Admittedly, our family obligations can get in the way, so please bear with us!] The conversation starters are meant to help you get over the “What did you learn today?” “Nothin’” or <shrugging the shoulders> we often see with our school-age students. We’ll also post a link to the photos we are taking throughout the week. If at any time you want a photo removed that is of your child, please let us know and we’ll be happy to take it down.

Please make sure and check Twitter throughout the day this week – https://twitter.com/SeeBlueSTEMCamp – we’ll post more pictures and updates throughout the day the rest of the week. No account is needed! We are also on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/seebluestemcamp/) and Facebook.

Today the blue and red groups experienced how we use STEM in measuring human body performance with Dr. Haley Bergstrom and her team. They were amazed at all the facts and had a lot of fun collecting their own data and conducting their investigations. Many were surprised about their reaction times!

The purple and brown groups got to spend time in Dr. Robin Cooper’s labs and the medical outreach facility. They learned about their nervous system and about the electricity that runs through their muscles. Some may have brought home their own pictures of their nervous system. They got to look and touch organs today as well!

In robotics, all four groups started out with the We Do 2.0 robots. They got to build right away and start programming to see what they could get their robot to do. For many, it was their first time seeing a robot and programming, so they really enjoyed just exploring today and investigating how to make things work in different ways.

In the yellow and green groups, they explored a variety of engineering fields and did some slinky-math and arduinos with Dr. Bruce Walcott. In robotics, students built their robots and dived right into programming. We were so impressed by how far the teams got today, even starting on some of the challenges! Our robotics instructors have some fun new challenges up their sleeves this week, so we’re excited to see where the students take them!

In their words…

Each day we’ll post some excerpts from the students’ reflections of what they learned each day at the STEM Content session. We don’t correct for spelling or grammar in these 🙂

  • Touching the organs was wired [weird]
  • They were squishy!
  • The diafram goes up and down with the lungs
  • I liked my pulse
  • I didn’t know there were different types of engineers.

Conversation Starters… 

We know your child is getting to the age where it might be like pulling teeth to get them to talk about their day beyond “It was fine.” “It was fun.” “I didn’t do anything.” So, each day we’ll post some suggested conversation starters centered on camp activities or STEM-related themes.

Red/Blue Groups

  • How do our lungs and diaphragm work together?
  • How did your jump compare to an NFL athlete
  • How did you build a model of the lungs and diaphragm? What did it show you?
  • What did you build with your robot today? What code or program did you write to make it do something?

Purple/Brown Groups

  • Did you touch any organs today? What did they look like? What did they feel like?
  • What did you do with the cinnamon activity today?
  • What does the electricity in your muscles do?
  • What did you build with your robot today? What code or program did you write to make it do something?

Yellow/Green

  • What was the purpose of pulsing the slinky? What did you find out?
  • What are important words in circuits?
  • How did robot building go today? What are you excited about getting your robot to do this week?

Photo of the Day…

Each day we’ll post a camp highlight.  Click the picture and it will take you to the weekly photo album. Please note that we try to capture pictures of all the campers, but we cannot guarantee that we will get every single one. We try our very best to though! We leave them unedited, so if you love to edit photos…feel free! If there is a photo you wish to have removed, please email me and we’ll take it down!

Posted on

Day 1 of Week 1 is in the books!

Wow! What a great first day everyone had! We are very excited to welcome 90 elementary campers and 62 Vex robotics campers this year! They’re quite the eager group and we’re thrilled to have them on UK’s campus! Thanks so much for everyone’s assistance and patience this morning as we got all 152 campers check in. It went as smooth as it could have and awesome!

Just a note about the consent and assent forms that we ask for every year. Our camp is subsidized by an NSF grant that requires research and reporting to the agency.  The purpose of the research is to develop a camp model that promotes STEM careers to students and can be replicated. We also look at students attitudes towards STEM and the impact of our activities. Without this grant and consent and assent to participate the camp simply would not exist. We never report any names or any individual data…it’s always aggregated together! You can read about some of our work here.

We will post a blog post each night this week with some highlights from the day and some conversation starters. The conversation starters are meant to help you get over the “What did you learn today?” “Nothin’” or <shrugging the shoulders> we often see with our school-age students. We’ll also post a link to the photos we are taking throughout the week. If at any time you want a photo removed that is of your child, please let us know and we’ll be happy to take it down.

Please make sure and check twitter throughout the day this week – https://twitter.com/SeeBlueSTEMCamp – we’ll post more pictures and updates throughout the day the rest of the week.

Vex Robotics

Today was all about building and becoming familiar with the Vex system. The groups worked on building their chassis for the clawbot. Some groups also started trying some basic programming to get their clawbot to move. All the groups will be into the programming tomorrow, so expect more stories about how they’re getting their robots to move!

Red/Blue Elementary Groups

It was a robot day today for these groups! They spent half of their day with Dr. Walcott and Dr. Thomas building scribble bots from scratch. They learned about how motors worked, how electricity flows though the battery, and the importance of a cam on a motor. They had a lot of fun trying the bots out and even personalizing them a bit 🙂 The blue groups got put in their bags, so some didn’t make it home quite in one piece, but the students know how they are to be put together, so you can help with them that endeavor.

Yellow/Green Elementary Groups

They spent half of their day with Dr. Testa extracting DNA from a strawberry! They were very careful scientists with their tools and were amazed at what the DNA looked like! They also explored different types of DNA.

Robotics for Elementary Groups

In robotics, they are using the We Do 2.0 robots from Lego Education. UK switched over to a new wireless network last month and some of the Chromebooks had some issues, but we are happy to report that they’re all resolved and we’ll be back on track with devices tomorrow! The students were awesome with sharing devices and still getting their building in. Many of the students were able to program their robots and try out some of the basic different programs. Lots more fun challenges coming tomorrow!

In their words…

Each day we’ll post some excerpts from the students’ reflections of what they learned each day at the STEM Content session. We don’t correct for spelling or grammar in these 🙂

  • That fruit has DNA
  • That I could see DNA if I do a few things
  • How to build a really cool robot that I have never built before
  • I liked it because theres a lout of creativity
  • I love chemistry
  • I want to learn more so I could see more DNAs

Conversation Starters… 

We know your child is getting to the age where it might be like pulling teeth to get them to talk about their day beyond “It was fine.” “It was fun.” “I didn’t do anything.” So, each day we’ll post some suggested conversation starters centered on camp activities or STEM-related themes.

Blue/Red Groups

  • Tell me about how you assembled your scribble bot. What tools did you have to use carefully? How did you know how to connect things? What did your scribble bot do when you connected the motor to the battery?
  • Tell me about how you assembled your We Do robot? What is your robot’s name? What did you get your robot to do today?

Yellow/Green Groups

  • What is DNA? What things have DNA? How did you extract DNA from the strawberry? What did it look like?
  • Tell me about how you assembled your We Do robot? What is your robot’s name? What did you get your robot to do today?

Vex Robotics

  • What is a chassis? How did you get it built?
  • If they programmed today, what did they get their Clawbot to do?

Photo of the Day…

Each day we’ll post a camp highlight.  Click the picture and it will take you to the weekly photo album. Please note that we try to capture pictures of all the campers, but we cannot guarantee that we will get every single one. We try our very best to though! Also we are STEM teachers and not full time photographers, so our pictures are not perfect and we leave them unedited, so if you love to edit photos…feel free! If there is a photo you wish to have removed, please email me and we’ll take it down!