Curriculum for training students?

[Jon Stratis]

A large part of our 2-week summer camp is a mouse trap car competition. As mentors, we get to design the rules and the goals (farthest distance? specific distance? out and back? lots of options!). We show them a very bare-bones basic car that moves, although it doesn't really meet the challenge 100%. We go through the competition on the last day - they bring in their cars (most of the work is done at home), and we have 3 rounds. Everyone runs their car in each round, and there's some time (15 minutes or so) between rounds to let them make modifications or improvements, with mentor help if they ask for it. We ask every student to give a 2 minute oral presentation on their robot and the process they used to build it. In the end, we crown a winner.

After the competition is over, we tell the students (most are brand new) what they just went through. A kick off. Prototyping, testing, and building. A competition with time to make repairs or changes between matches. Presenting your robot and process to the judges. Awards at the end. Guess what... it's exactly what we do with our big robot! It's a great introduction to the process, without requiring any real machine knowledge. It's designed to get them wanting more, and to lose their "fear" of the build season.

I should note... This is only a portion of our summer program, there's a lot more that goes on during it!