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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