Best Practices for Student Robotic Camps
Marilyn Barger, Richard Gilbert, Marie Boyette · 2020
For six years the Florida Advanced Technological Education Center, FLATE, an NSF-ATE Regional Center of Excellence, has been involved in summer robotics camps for middle school and high school students.The camps have grown from a partnership with other organizations to a fine-tuned FLATE organized and executed summer STEM experience.The camp's theme: "technology is more fun when you actually know what is going on," is based on the science, technology, engineering and mathematics needed to actually "know what's going on" with the emphasis on the T&E components of the camp's STEM activities.The camp's "Tool" is robotics, its "Toy" is the Lego Mindstorm™ robot, and its "Trick" is to dissolve the robots into an environment where the technology is the star and seeing the results of their own engineering decisions is the reason campers are having fun.This presentation elaborates on the mechanics of the "Toy" (learning to assemble and program the robots), the "Tool" (using various robotic sensors, exploring various design options, and evaluating selected robot configuration performance), and the "Theme."Theme activities include participating in several challenge competitions, learning about modern advanced manufacturing via on-site and online visits, and adding personality to robots via a FLATE inspired DS Solidworks™ modified version of their student edition design software package.The paper also provides logistic details for creating and operating your own camp.These details are based on FLATE's cumulative experience with over 400 camp attendees with 200 participating in the summer of 2010, the operation of camps exclusively for girls, and the export of camps to off site locations.Initial follow up details about attendees is also provided.