top of page
This site was designed with the
.com
website builder. Create your website today.Start Now

Work

Day 1 and 2 Overview:

 

Day 1 and 2 of the program have been an introduction to concepts and challenges in both design and engineering.  Focusing on Toy Design your students have worked in teams to design and produce their own original toy line.  Using rapid protoyping the students worked in groups to identify their own original action figure and then prototype that concept using the ipad and 3-D printer. 

 

 Day 1:

·      Morning Introductions and Warm-Up Challenge

·      Toy Concept Development

·      Learning to Design and Prototype on the Computer- 123D   http://www.123dapp.com-

·      Super Hero Shield Engineering Challenge and LOGO DesignGuest Artist:  Patrick Osborne from Disney delivered a hands-on workshop on how to concept design and sketch.  This workshop is relevant to all areas of engineering and design as it helps students to learn how to break down the concept sketching process down into simple elements.  Sketching is an important aspect of being able to transition a concept into design and build.

 

Day 2:

·      Morning “MacGyver” fifteen minute Challenge- Build a mechanism to transport water from point A to point B using limited materials.

·      Take your concept design back to the ipad lab to build your concept in digital form and prepare to 3-D print.  (Prints will be shared at the final culmination).

·      Shield Engineering Completion and Testing

·      Structural Engineering Challenge- Tallest Tower Building Competition.

Toy Design & Prototyping

Day 3 and 4 Overview:

 

These last two days we've focused on a different area of design, getting creative with functional products found in the home: lights and chairs.  Students made LED lamps and then used 3D CAD software to create digital models of shades that were then laser cut from cardboard.  The Eames Group lent us their expertise, guiding students through building three different, small scale, chairs of their own design.

 

Day 3:

  • Morning "MacGyver" Challenge - Create a protective landing system for an egg falling from 8ft with limited materials in just 15 minutes. 

  • Work as a design team to create custom-made cardboard lamps

  • Learn basic wiring, and the roles of resistors in circuitry, to construct LED arrays and a protective casing surrounding the circuit.

  • Use 3D CAD software to plot digital models of lamp shade designs and create patterns to be exported for cardboard laser cutting.

 

Day 4:

  • Morning "MacGyver" Challenge - Using only duct tape and newspaper, construct a chair that will hold first a 2 liter bottle of water for 10 seconds, and then your own body weight.

  • Construct the lamp shade designed on Day 3 using the laser cut cardboard pieces that students customized on 3D CAD software.

  • Design and construct three small-scale chair designs, using different materials for each chair.

 

 

Furniture Design/ Structural Engineering & Prototyping 
Automotive Engineering & Design Workshop 
 
Day 5 & 6 Overview:
In these 2 days students will delve into the guts behind the glamour of the world of automobiles.  Use knowledge of gear ratios and power transmission to make cars built for speed and cars built for strength.  Next learn about the aerodynamics behind chassis and car body design by sculpting a clay prototype and testing it in a dry ice wind tunnel.
 
Day 5:
  • ​Morning McGyver Challenge - Teams use strategy and stealth and a small selection of simple equipment, to devise a system for moving a radioactive isotope  (water in a cup folks, we're not really handing out radioactive material) from their head quarters, to another team's head quarters.
  • Gear ratio lab - understanding how 'gearing down' and 'gearing up' will change the torque and speed of a motor, and therefore the climbing ability of a vehicle.
  • Engineering cars using LEGO Mindstorm to achieve a goal of climbing steep gradients.
  • Monster Truck Rally!  Our engineering teams compete to see whose vehicle can pull a heavy weight the most successfully, and  whose car can complete the challenging hill course.
​
Day 6:
  • Roadster race.  Using their new knowledge of power transmission and gearing up motors, students alter their cars from Day 5 to turn them into high speed performers, and enter them in a mini version of the Indy 500.
  • Guest speaker and industrial designer Jake Loniak from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, joins us to talk about the intricacies of contouring car bodies and the art of transportation design.
  • Designing aerodynamic car bodies and sculpting 3D models out of clay.  Students test the models in a wind tunnel using dry ice to see how the air stream moves over the car.
The Robotics Engineering & Design Workshop
Day 7 & 8

Overview and Pictures Coming

The Final Engineering & Design Challenge

Making Monster Trucks!

We've figured out how to make it go, now let's make it look good and go faster.

LEGO's come a a long way, it's no longer just brightly colored building blocks for making houses and farms.  Over the next two days our young engineers will be mastering LEGO Robotics systems to learn about automation, logic and computer programming.

 

Day 7

  • Morning MacGyver Challenge:  People Programming, working in groups of three, students communicate verbally and non-verbally to complete kinetic challenges involving direction and transportation.

  • After learning the basics in programming and using the vehicle construction skills gained in the automotive workshop, students make motion robots that will follow a set course and pick a path through a 2D 'minefield'!

  • Moving onto the next level of programming students learn color sensor functions in preparation for Day 8.

  

Day 8

  • Guest Speaker.  The morning kicks off with a visit from a scientist and aerospace engineer to discuss the role of robots in space exploration.

  • Advanced programming workshop

  • Challenge course.  This maze for robots stretches the abilities of the students.  Using their new programming skills and knowledge of light, color and motion sensors, these rookie engineers will have to navigate a series of challenges which get progressively more complex the further along the course they go. 

It's here, the grand finale!  The last days of camp are going to be focused on an intense team mission.  Using all the knowledge acquired in the kidstarter camp and an abundance of creativity and imagination the students - working  in teams - will design and build a Rube Goldberg machine.

 

Not sure what a Rube Goldberg machine is?  Take a look at this link.

 

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/rube-goldberg-machine

 

Day 9

Morning MacGyver Challenge: build a catapult to launch a soft missile accurately.

Design and create a Rube Goldberg course, using a variety of available materials.

Students are designated a specific area for their project and are given starting and ending points to which they must adhere... everything else in between is up to them.

 

Day 10

Test it and perfect it.  Test it and perfect it.  Test it and perfect it.

bottom of page