Emerging Engineers

This week, for Emerging Engineers, campers challenged their engineering skills with many activities! Take a look at what they accomplished this week:

Harry!

On Monday, the campers started off by learning about the different kinds of engineers, and what those different engineers do.  Then they took their own quiz to find out which kind of engineer might fit them best!  Harry, the pompom with googly eyes, needed the campers' help to get the best view in the museum.  They had to build a structure to safely get Harry as high as possible!  The campers then found some Mystery Bags, each filled with materials and a challenge for them to complete.  Towards the end of the day, we let some HexBugs loose, and the campers got to play with our vibrating electric bugs.  The younger campers used the HexBugs to create an ArtBot, that drew beautiful squiggles (Now available for sale at the art fair). The older campers created mazes for the HexBugs to race around in.

Building ciruits

Making a human circuit!

On Tuesday, the campers played with electricity and circuits.  The campers built all kinds of cool creations with Snap Circuits by snapping together different components like Legos to build working circuits.  The campers also learned all about a short circuit and how to avoid creating one. Then the campers lit our energy tube by completing the circuit with their own bodies!  By forming human chains, the campers themselves became a part of the circuit. Later, the campers built retro circuits with stripped wire, batteries, and light bulbs. In the process they learned about parallel and series circuits, and the benefits of each circuit. Towards the end of the day, the campers got to experience the power of a lemon. Or four, to be exact. By connecting 4 lemons together with wires, galvanizes nails, and zinc pennies, the campers managed to get a small LED to light up. When life gives you lemons, make lemon-lights! 

On Wednesday, the campers learned about the manufacturing process, and mechanical engineering.   Using foam car pieces, the campers created an assembly line process to quickly assemble all of the cars.  Much faster than when they tried to build each car individually! Next the campers built crash test cars, where they had to protect a hard boiled egg from a crash. To end the day, the campers built their own roller coasters, complete with twists and loops! The campers used their engineering skills to get the marble to roll all the way down their creations. (It's harder than it looks!).

Testing the crash test cars

Building the crash test cars

On Thursday, the campers became structural engineers and were challenged to build the tallest structure they could using only newspaper and tape.  All the counselors were blown away with how creative all the campers were with their towers!  The younger campers made their own HexBug mazes, and had fun racing them. The younger campers also made pop-up cards, and learned about  The older campers started working on building their SumoBots for a battle on Friday.  Washtenaw Engineering for Kids made a special visit to help with the SumoBots.  They brought in programmable Lego robots, and the older campers got to program and assemble the bots!

On Friday, the campers started the day off with some Engineering Challenges.  Using only craft sticks, cups, and wooden cubes, the campers had to complete timed challenges by building the largest (stable) structure they can! After snack, the older campers returned to their SumoBots to put the finishing touches on them and to battle them.  The younger campers had their own program with Washtenaw Engineering for Kids, and got to build a variety of Lego animals and other vehicles complete with moving electric parts!

Sumobot Battle

The winners of the Sumobot Battle!

Programming their creation

Building

Building