The June Harless Center held a weeklong summer camp June 4th -7th, 2012 for children entering 2nd-5th grade on Marshall University's campus. Allen Perry, a Physics and Chemistry teacher from South Point High School (Ohio), lead the camp with the Harless staff assisting. Allen participated in the roll out which involved 4 local schools this past school year. Children gained inspiration for their designs from a virtual tour on the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History’s website and used the engineering design process to create their robots with the goal being to learn how to create and program a robot.
ASK:
- What do you want your robot to look like?
- What do you want your robot to be able to do?
IMAGINE:
- Research
- Brainstorm ideas
- Choose the best one!
PLAN:
- Draw a diagram
- Make a list of materials you will need
CREATE:
- Follow your plan and create it!
- Test it out!
IMPROVE:
- Talk about what works, what doesn’t, and what could work better!
- Modify your design to make it better
- Test it out!
On Thursday, a showcase of the student’s work was held and parents, friends and family were invited to attend. Some of the robot designs included an alligator, truck, Sacajawea, wooly mammoth, and recycle bots. The children enjoyed the experience and the parents were impressed with the designs that their children made and the creativity that was used