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Rainy Day Fun

Rain, rain, rain! The students did great today and we managed to avoid the downpours throughout the day. Friday is always and exciting and sad day. So excited that we had such a great week and sad that this is the last day.

The red and blue groups got to dive more into the engineering world today with Dr. Bruce Walcott. They built and tested their Archimedes boats, did some human robot programming, did a tour of the engineering quad, and did some programming challenges with the Ozobots. As a final project today in robotics, they got to create their own launchers and catapults. I’m sure you’re not surprised when I saw they thoroughly enjoyed using the engineering design process to design, build and test their robot builds.

The yellow and green groups got to do some investigations with a hot product developed by Dr. Scott Stephens and his team. The lab-on-a-chip is a result of his research and their hard work during entrepreneurial leave. In robotics they concluded their week of programming by working on the First Lego League challenges. Students were really excited to put together their sequence of code and see how their robot responded. The students really grew this week in their robotics and coding knowledge!

In Vex Robotics, they took their code they built together yesterday and their robots and did a competition today. Teams could earn points by moving the balls and blocks in the field – they were timed and had another team competing against them. Team 1 was the eventual winner! We are exploring the idea of adding a 2nd week so the students can dive deeper into programming the Robot in C and trying out more design engineering aspects of the robots and the competitions.

Conversation Starters…

Red/Blue Groups

  • What did you get your Ozobot to do today? How did you make your Ozobot go?
  • Is there a type of engineering that interests you?
  • What did you build today in robotics? How did you test it out?
  • Did you change your robot design? Why did you think to do that?
  • What was your favorite part of the week? What do you want to learn more about?

Yellow/Green Groups

  • What is a lab-on-a-chip?
  • Why are they useful and important?
  • What investigation did you conduct with your lab-on-a-chip?
  • What challenge(s) did you complete with your robot today? What sensors or motors did you use?
  • What was your favorite part of the week? What do you want to learn more about?

Vex Robotics

  • Did your robot perform like you thought it would today in the competition?
  • How did you score points in the competition?
  • If you could rebuilt your robot, what would you do differently?
  • What was your favorite part of the week? What do you want to learn more about?

Photo of the Day…

Click on the picture and it will take you to all the pictures from the week. If there is one you would like taken down, please let us know and we’ll take it down.

Winning Vex Robotics Team!
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Sticky and Humid Fun!

It’s hard to believe it’s almost the end of the week! We’ve had a blast with this first group this year! We managed to keep the rain away for another day. It got a little close at the end of pick up 🙂

Working on their circuits!

The red and blue groups did circuits today with Dr. Lumpp. They did an awesome job! There was quite a bit of upper mathematics in it and they did a fabulous job. It’s amazing what learning in context does for the kids! They solved a variety of challenges presented to them on their circuit boards. There were lots of smiles and shouts of glee when they connected a circuit correctly! In robotics, they did another creative and open build today. A majority chose to do some sort of doodle bot, which they figured out could actually do spirographs!

The yellow and green groups experienced how we use STEM in measuring human body performance with Dr. 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. In robotics today, they worked on the maze and the C-A-T-S – CATS – CATS – CATS challenge. For the students who finished that, they jumped into the Lego Challenge mats. Everyone is doing such a great job programming and tinkering with their different variables!

In Vex Robotics today, they did some more moving blocks and using the arm. They dove deeper into the coding. It’s different code – they use C – then what many are used to with the Ev3 or WeDo 2.0 coding. They are having a competition tomorrow and so we are going to LiveStream it for families to see.

In their words…

Red/Blue Groups

  • I Learned all about sercits.
  • whats inside a computer.
  • I learned that computers have fans to keep them cool.
  • [I want to learn more about circuits because] it was interesting and sparked my creativeity.
  • I wan’t to be a inventer when I grow up!
  • it helps your mind grow.

Yellow/Green Groups

  • I learned that wenn the diagram goes down the lungs expand and whent the diagram goes up the lungs close in. [diaphragm]
  • I Learned how to check my pulse.
  • I liked when we made lungs out of a bottle and balloons
  • I liked how we got to learn about us and not just about generalized human diarama.

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?

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…

Click the picture below and it will take you to all the pictures from the week! If there is one on there you do not like for us to have posted, please let us know and we’ll take it down.

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Weather Free Day 3!

Aside from the morning rain during drop off, we were able to avoid the rain and storms yesterday! The students are really enjoying the cooler weather this week, especially when walking across campus.

In the red and blue groups today, they worked with Dr. Haley Bergstrom and her team investigating Human Body Performance and how we can use STEM to learn and improve. They got to do some of their own testing and investigations, doing some physical activities and recording their stats along the way. In robotics, they tried their hand at building a car and see if they could get it to move. There were lots of successes today and they were pretty happy with their work! Some were dismayed that the robots didn’t move as fast as cars in real life do 🙂

In the yellow and green groups, they got their turn with virtual reality. They learned about what virtual reality is, why it is useful, and how people build VR worlds. Students got to be creative and build their own VR worlds and show them off. Many of the students actually found the VR to be relaxing and took advantage of the moment. In robotics, they dove deeper into the challenges, working with some of the sensors they can use to help get their robot to do things. They are really loving the challenge of figuring out what’s working and not working on their robots. Their persistence is amazing to keep trying and trying!

In Vex Robotics, they worked with their robots to use their claw and move boxes around. They scored points based on how their robots performed in the field.

In their Words…

Red/Blue Groups

  • That we have energy in are body.
  • I learned that blood is actually blue, but when it touches oxygen it is red.
  • I would like to learn more so when I get musch older, and my children feel sick, I can identify what is wrong with their bodies.
  • That an NFL player has to jump and run 114.3 cm and 3.81 sec

Yellow/Green Groups

  • I didn’t know that there were two cameras to fils a vr.
  • I learned how to create your own VR/360 video.
  • it’s very interesting and it could eventually help evolve the world.
  • There are 3 VR tales VR ar and 360 and how to make 360 video

Conversation Starters…

Red/Yellow Groups

  • What was the most interesting thing about the heart that you learned?
  • What color is your blood in your body? What causes it to change colors?
  • How high does a NFL player have to jump?
  • Tell me about the car you built today? How did you get it to move? How far did it go?

Yellow/Green Groups

  • What was experiencing Virtual Reality like?
  • Did you feel like you were in a room or in a different place when you had the goggles on?
  • If you could create a VR world, what would it be? Why?
  • What challenges did you complete today with your robot? What were you trying to get your robot to do?
  • Did you try out any of the sensors? How did you get them to work?

Vex Robotics

  • How did your robot do in the field today?
  • How did it capture the boxes? Were you able to use your claw at all?
  • Did you have to make any modifications to your robot to get it to move better or differently?

Photo of the Day…

Enchanted by VR
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Circuits and Airplanes!

Today was another adventurous day on University of Kentucky’s Campus! Students have settled into the camp routines. The beginnings of summer hyperness and jitters settled down…a little bit 🙂 We are so thankful for another great group of students this year!

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) 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. I hope they explained them to you and why they used the materials they did! Many were amazed about how airplanes fly in the air! In robotics, they got to do some fun open builds, trying out the different motor and movement capabilities. They got creative and built dinosaurs, caterpillars, snakes, etc. They were quite impressed with themselves!

The yellow and green groups got to play with circuits and even create their own circuit boards with their wires and soldering irons. Their precision and attention to detail as they soldered was truly amazing! In robotics, they started the first of their challenges and had fun trying out the programming features and trying to complete the challenge. Tomorrow they will dive into creating their own robot challenge!

The Vex robotics group continued their building today. Many of the groups finished and got to start trying out their builds with their remotes. The groups were excited about the claws on their robots and are anxious to get into programming and the field tomorrow to really test their robot design and programming skills!

In their own words…

  • I would like more about this topic so I can maybe one day build a real airplane.
  • I likeD the forses. of flite.
  • that there is something called air moliclaos
  • I learned how to solder, and the difference between bread bords and circet bords.
  • How do circuits affect in the real world because it is really important.

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 animal or insect or reptile did you build with your robot kit today? What did you make it do? How did you make it do that?

Yellow/Green Groups

  • What’s the difference between a circuit board and a breadboard?
  • Why are circuits important?
  • Tell me how you soldered today. What did you solder together? How does your circuit work?
  • What challenge(s) did you complete with your robot today?

Vex Robotics

  • How far did you get in building your robot base today? What changes did you make to your robot as you were building it today?
  • What was it like to drive your robot?
  • How do you think your robot will do tomorrow when you start programming it?

Photo of the Day…

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Week 1 2019 Kick off!

And we’re off and running for the first week of UK See Blue See STEM Summer Camps 2019! It was a bit crazy with many of the students just finishing on Friday, many of our teachers out because of required work days this week, but we made it all run today with our awesome staff and students! We really appreciate all of your patience today as we checked in over 160 students for this week’s camps.

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 in the Vex Robotics, they dove into building their robots. For most students, this is much more complex as many have not built with Vex before. We liken it to a Kinex set…lots of small pieces, screws, and plates. Some have their bases built and got to start playing around with the remote and seeing how they robots move. They will continue building and exploring tomorrow as they figure out the different ways they can get their robot to move and the different arms they can build.

In the red and blue groups today, they got to experience virtual reality. They learned about what virtual reality is, why it is useful, and how people build VR worlds. Students got to be creative and build their own VR worlds and show them off. Some of them brought them home today 🙂 There were a lot of wows and wonderment today! In robotics, they 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.

A possible VR world created by a student

In the yellow and green groups, they explored a variety of engineering fields and did some slinky-math and arduinos. In robotics, students built their robots and got started on talking about some programming. Our robotics instructors have some fun new challenges up their sleeves this week, so we’re excited to see where the students take them!

Slinky Pulsing and Math!

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 🙂

  • I want to make my own VR.
  • (I liked) Writing storys together
  • I learned that you can make your one (VR) show.
  • I learned about and, not, and or circits.
  • There are different kinds of gates ind circuits.
  • I didn’t know about the pulse with the slinky.

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.

Vex Robotics

  • How is building the Vex robot different than the other robots you’ve built before?
  • How far did you get in building your robot today? What was the most fun about it?

Red/Blue Groups

  • What was experiencing Virtual Reality like?
  • Did you feel like you were in a room or in a different place when you had the goggles on?
  • If you could create a VR world, what would it be? Why?
  • What did you build with your robot today? What code or program did you write to make it do something?

Yellow/Green

  • What are arduinos?
  • 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!

The wonders of Virtual Reality!