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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…

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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…

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Exploration Tuesday!

We had another fabulous day at STEM Camp! The sea of green looked awesome walking across campus, especially since freshmen registration and orientation started today all across campus!

The red and blue groups had a fabulous day with Dr. Walcott in the College of Engineering. They learned about the different types of engineering (Dr. Walcott likes to call them flavors) and toured several of the research labs where the graduate students showed them the latest research they were working on with the professors. They also made robots today called Scribble Bots…the students had a blast building their robots and learning about circuits. They may need some hope taking the battery in and out as the case is really tight for it.

The yellow and green groups took a turn in Dr. Cooper’s lab today with him and his graduate students! Many came home with tracings of their body – they traced themselves and then drew pathways of the nervous system. They then did some investigations with sensitivity, the nervous system, and crawfish. They also visited the medical education center where they looked at different human organs, some were diseased and some were healthy. The students were surprised at how heavy the brain was!

In robotics, all groups dove right into programming today. They learned about the FLL challenge they’ll be doing on Thursday and goals for programming this week. They started on the maze challenge and color sensor challenge. Tomorrow they will start stringing more code together and adding on different sensors.

In their words…

  • By making a lobsided moter it creates more vibration.
  • That non-flat walls take away or capture more sound then flat walls, flat walls make an echo
  • that dead brains look disgusting
  • I learned about nuerons and synapse
  • heat can change when you take your hands off nose
  • I didn’t know that the signals from the brain react to your body when you get hurt.
  • that crawdads have a tail reflex

Conversation Starters… 

Red/Blue Groups

  • What was your favorite part of the engineering tour? What did you learn about engineers today that you did not know before?
  • Tell me about how you assembled your scribble bot. How did you know how to connect things? What did your scribble bot do when you connected the motor to the battery? What does the glue stick on the end of the motor do?
  • What did you want your robot to do today? How did you get your robot to do what you wanted it to do?

Yellow/Green Groups:

  • How do muscles in your arm move? What is the path of the signals?
  • How do you create electricity with your arm?
  • What was the most interesting thing you learned about the human organs today?
  • What did you want your robot to do today? How did you get your robot to do what you wanted it to do?

Photo of the Day…

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Wickedly Hot Kick Off to Week 3!

We had an awesome Day 1 of our 3rd week of Camp this month! It was a pretty hot day, but the 120 students were very diligent about drinking water throughout the day. Check in went really well today…Thanks so much for everyone’s assistance and patience this morning as we got all campers checked in!

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 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 have been great this summer, so bear with us please 🙂 ] 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.

Today in the red and blue groups, they ventured all the way across campus to discover things about their nervous system, look at the human organs in the medical science education center, and conduct some investigations around introreceptors, contracting muscles and other fun stuff! Many of them brought home body tracings they did and some of the major nerve pathways drawn. Be sure to ask about the crawfish investigations tonight! They got to see nerve impulses in action.

The yellow and green groups were busy today with Dr. Thomas and making flying objects. They used the engineering design process and lots of mathematics (surface area) and physics to create a flying object out of different types of materials and did some challenges around how far they could get it to fly. They brought home some of the creative flying inventions today.

In robotics today for all groups, it was building day. All the students are doing EV3 robots this year. Today they focused on building their robots and learning about how the different parts and pieces work together. Some of the groups flew through building and were able to start on some programming. Tomorrow they will all dive into the programming and start some of our challenges. For the challenges, we use a blend of our own curriculum our robotics instructors have created and some of the FLL challenges, including the new one for this year.

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 🙂

  • If you got hit in the kidnesy you have to pee
  • I did not know about newrons, axons, bulbs, dendriles, and synapes.
  • I loved examining old body parts
  • I did not know the brain is heavy.
  • I learned about aerodynamics and gravity.
  • flight=drag lift thrust
  • more weight in the front of the plane will make it glide more.
  • I learned how exactly planes fly and how weight distribution affects their flight.
  • I learned how flaps on the plane affect how air molecules hit the plane.

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 muscles in your arm move? What is the path of the signals?
  • How do you create electricity with your arm?
  • What was the most interesting thing you learned about the human organs today?
  • Tell me about how you assembled your robot. What is your robot’s name? What do you think you will get your robot to do when you start programming it?

Yellow/Green Groups:

  • What makes an airplane go into the air?
  • What are the different types of airplanes you created today?
  • What did you take into consideration when you created your airplane? How did that work for you? What are some other things you tried?
  • Tell me about how you assembled your robot. What is your robot’s name? What do you think you will get your robot to do when you start programming it?

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!

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Halfway through!

Another steamy, hot, awesome day at See Blue STEM Camp! We’re thankful the weather has been cooperating this week, although this afternoon was not quite as fun to walk across campus in.

The red and blue groups were busy today with Dr. Thomas and making flying objects. They used the engineering design process and lots of mathematics (surface area) to create a flying object out of different types of materials and did some challenges around how far they could get it to fly. I’m sure they enjoyed showing you their creations tonight!

The green and yellow groups spent time with Dr. Cooper today in his lab with his graduate students and with the medical outreach center. They learned more deeply about the nervous system and how it works. Many of them brought home body tracings they did and some of the major nerve pathways drawn. They did some investigations around nerve impulses with crawfish and also talked about their own brains and nerves and what happens when you learn how to do something.

In robotics today, all four groups continued along with their challenges. They worked with sensors, loops, variables, and stringing more complex code together. They really enjoyed the different challenges. We love how persistent they were and how they are really problem solving through changing different variables to get the robot to do something different. It’s truly amazing with robotics (and other technology) that when they fail, they’re actually more motivated to fix it and get it right! This is truly a joy to watch during camp, especially their faces and the excitement for when they overcome a challenge. Tomorrow they will begin the First Lego League Challenge for this year. They are very eager to get started!

In their words…

  • There’s a variety of molds for planes
  • All airplanes are tilted a little bit, to fly.
  • I learned about airodynamics, physics, + thrust
  • That a plane need 4 diffrent forces to keep it in the air.
  • Aerodynamics and Lift, drag, trust, and weight.
  • The wings on the plane are bent down a little so the air molecules hit the underside of the wing violently to keep the plane up against gravity.
  • The toy poodle can detect missing people the best
  • That the brain controls more of your hand than any other body part
  • Once our body gets used to doing somehting we can multitask and forget the first thing.
  • I learned how craw fish are very sensitive on the tails.
  • I learn about how we hear differently than animals.

Conversation Starters

Red/Blue Groups:

  • What makes an airplane go into the air?
  • What did you take into consideration when you created your airplane? How did that work for you? What are some other things you tried?
  • What challenges did you complete in robotics today? What did you do to get your robot to go?

Yellow/Green Groups:

  • How do the brain and nervous system work together?
  • What is one of the most sensitive parts of the body? Why is it so sensitive?
  • What happens to the crawfish’s tail when you touch it?
  • What challenges did you complete in robotics today? What did you do to get your robot to go?

Photo of the Day…