Design & Enjoy!

With this week being so high-octane, I barely had time to post! Our Robot Designers have done some truly amazing work this week. Many of them never having touched LEGO Mindstorms before had fully function robots. These designers programmed fully autonomous and remote-controlled robots.

While each design challenge contributed to their robots (Lifters, pushers, gearing and sensors), the ultimate goal was to create a perfect Sumo Bot (Think Battlebots but less fire and more pushing and lifting).

Without having access to saws and flames and other utilities that Robot Designers have, our designers had to think out side the box if they wanted to overcome their opponent. In the end we all had a blast and I can tell you that one day, every single one of these inventors could have a fully designed robot of their own!

Have a great rest of your Summer everyone! Thanks to those who participated in our camps; those of you who are checking us out for the first time, jump in for a camp next summer or a workshop this fall, it will be a blast!

So you want to build a robot?

As our official first day of Robot Camp we started off with something simple, connect some LEGO! After those first few connections we start to add wheels, the EV3 and some programming. From there the sky is the limit; we had flipping, driving and spinning robots. Tomorrow the challenge continues with a LEGO Drag Race!

Inventors Fair!

The last two days of Camp truly flew by! Our campers made some unbelievable inventions. From quality of life fixes such as gently, silencing ear-muffs to an automatic fly-swatter, our Inventors truly designed outside the box.

Their designs were created to fix a problem or something in their life they had trouble with. I would say these projects astounded and amazed. Over the course of a week these Inventors designed, prototype, iterated and created something directly from their minds.

This was an amazing week and I feel privileged to have worked with these brilliant minds!

Creation and Invention!

Today was a day full of invention and creation! Our Inventors pursued their ideas with the utmost enthusiasm. All attempting to create that fully functional prototype, a sign that their idea will be possible. To keep our Inventors on their toes we gave them a challenge. Their task was to create a stack of cups (plus a lego minifig!) without using their hands. They had string, rubber bands, cotton balls and straws to use; each group carefully and successfully airdropped their minifig safely to the top!

With the day winding down we took our time to walk down to the park; our ultimate goal was to fly some amazing airplanes!

Harnessing the powers of Nature!

Today we harnessed the power of electricity to create our own circuits! Using conductive putty, LEDs, and a 9V battery we produced light within our custom circuits. After designing our own lights we moved on to crafting survival lean-to's. The objective was to design a tent/lean-to that could protect at least one person from the elements. In addition to all of these challenges, our inventors simultaneously continued to work on their inventions that they would be presenting at the end of this week!

Inspirational Inventions by Inspiring Inventors

With our first day passing in a flurry, I managed to take some snapshots of how an Inventors Camp for Girls looks on the inside. From designing and creating safe 6-pack soda holders, to creating buttons and custom journals, our inventors worked hard to express themselves. With the day coming to a close our inventors took some time to discover what their problems were and if they could solve them with a simple invention!

 

A Day of Flight and Height!

Camp was quite literally a whirlwind today. From designing and building custom paper airplanes, to crafting and flying professionally designed prop planes our campers soared! Finally with the day winding down we made our best attempt to reach the sky with shaving cream and straws! Check out the image gallery below to see all these amazing crafts. Today truly shows that a picture is worth more than one thousand words!