[Aignam]

I ran a Lego Camp last summer. The camp lasted for approixmately 1 month (a day or two off for July 4th). A good 10 kids signed up and participated, and we held the camp at a local church building that we were graciously allowed to use.

We started off with the basics, teaching about the most simple of Lego Mindstorms constructions, than began to introduce the more technical aspects of the machines, including gear ratios, differentials, multiple computer units, etc.

For the first week, my helpers and I would introduce a concept, show them a few examples of how that concept might be utilized and the benefits of such, then let them work on their own implementation of said concept. My helpers and I assisted where needed, helped debug and test, but mostly just gave support, ideas, and encouragement. At the end of each day (2 hour days) we would run the machines. The next day, we would perfect the machines, then move on to the next concept. Another helper took the kids aside individually and taught simple Lego Mindstorms programming on a laptop.

After the kids had mastered the basics, we broke them up into groups, gave them a challenge that they had to complete in a certain amount of days, and let them work! As the kids completed the challenges, we would expand on them and help the kids to make more complex machines.

Towards the end of the camp, my helpers and I made challenges quite similar to older FIRST games and broke the kids into two groups. The kids spent multiple days working on each project and ran their machines head to head in a big tournament, which was tons of fun.

Most of the kids had a relatively easy time with completing the challenges, and those that didn't received help from their peers and from instructors.

Don't forget snacks and drinks!

If you have any more questions, by all means send me a PM.