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Downpour Fun!

About every 3-4 years there’s nothing we can do but get caught in a super fun downpour. This year was the year. The kids were great sports and everyone had a chance to dry out and have a great afternoon!

The red and blue groups were with Dr. Bruce Walcott in the College of Engineering today. They got to extend a lot of their learning from the energy lesson the day before. They built simple motors, learned what all the different fields of engineering were and what they did, and then played and coded with the ozobots. In robotics, they did an open build with animals, different from the ones they built the day before. Snakes were one of the most popular ones, especially when they got the mouth to open and close!

The green and yellow groups were with Dr. Haley Bergstrom and her team where they learned about fitness and how we use STEM in human performance. They learned about the importance of the heart and lungs. Built a model of a lung, did a fitness test to see the difference in their pulse before and after, and did some reaction tests. The orange and pink groups spent the day with Dr. Brandi Frisby and her team with virtual reality. They learned about the different types of virtual reality, how they create virtual reality worlds, and then got to create their own. They really enjoyed the space and shark VR! Many found it very relaxing. In robotics, they finished up the maze and C-A-T-S challenges and started on the First Lego League Challenge – Trash Trek. Most groups are using their sensors proficiently now and stringing multiple steps together!

ChemCamp did some exploration with the periodic table of elements and then the favorite was extracting DNA from a strawberry. They were amazed that strawberries had DNA!

In Their Own Words…

  • You can use chemicals to determine other chemicals
  • I loved quantum chemistry
  • What soluble and insoluble means
  • the DNA extraction of strawberries
  • I didn’t know that there was AR I only knew about vr and 360˚
  • I learned how to properly make a 360˚ video
  • That 3 pound weats can be heavy if you hold them long enof
  • I learned that the average adult has 5 liters of blood
  • I learned that when you breath in your diaphram drops when you exhale your diaphram comes back up.
  • I learnd aubout engineering and what I did not no before is how to make motors.
  • I want to learn more about electricity because it’s fun to learn about it.
  • I learned low volt use Ampere’s Law ElextioMagnet

Conversation Starters…

Red/Blue Groups

  • What type of engineering sounds interesting to you?
  • How did you make a motor?
  • What is an ozobot? How did you make it go?
  • What did you build with your robot? If you could create something else, what would it be?

Yellow/Green Groups

  • How do you take your pulse? What is your pulse?
  • How do the lungs work with the diaphragm?
  • How did you build a model of the lungs?
  • What did you notice about the fitness test?
  • What challenges did you complete with your robot today? How confident are you in programming your robot the way you want to?

Pink/Orange Groups

  • What is virtual reality? What are the different types?
  • How do create a 360* video?
  • What virtual reality did you experience today? What was it like?
  • What challenges did you complete with your robot today? How confident are you in programming your robot the way you want to?

Photo of the Day…

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Week 3 Kick off!

We kicked off Week 3 with a heavy, but brief, rain shower. Thanks for your patience today as we got over 210 students checked in and settled into camp routines. We’re thankful the rain held off for the rest of the day, although we had some humid walks across campus!

Today in the red and blue groups, they were with Dr. Jonathan Thomas exploring physics and learning about airplanes. They are well-versed in the four forces that enable an airplane to fly and they got to make multiple airplanes today to test out different variables to see which flew the highest, furthest, etc. In robotics, they started out with some beginning builds and learning about how to program their robot. They all got through the first build and were really excited to get to program it and watch it move initially!

The yellow and green groups were with Dr. Brandi Frisby and her team from College of Communications and Information exploring virtual reality. Students got to experience the two different types of virtual reality, learned how to create a virtual reality world, and even created their own! They really enjoyed the session and found it actually very relaxing. The pink and orange groups spent time with Dr. Robin Cooper and his lab exploring the human body. They learned about the nervous system, did some investigations with their senses and how they work with the nervous system, conducted some investigations with crayfish, and got to hold some organs today. The organs are always a favorite part of the day! In robotics, they built their robots and started some basic programming. For those who have programmed before, they dove right into the challenges!

Chem Camp enjoyed some lab safety and then dove right into investigations and experiments! They did experiments around carbon dioxide, explored macromolecules, and wrapped up the day with a DNA murder mystery.

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

  • 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 are you most excited about doing with your robot this week?

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?
  • How did your robot building go today? What are you most excited about learning about with your robot this week?

Pink/Orange 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?
  • How did your robot building go today? What are you most excited about learning about with your robot this week?

Chem Camp

  • Tell me about the sugar rainbow.
  • What are macromolecules?
  • What was the murder mystery you had to solve? What strategies did you use to solve the mystery?

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!

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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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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!