My team, 1513 will be hosting a week long robotics camp for 8th-11th grade students. As this was my first year involved in robotics am am not sure how to structure the camp. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Try asking our head mentor, Sean Schuff. Between him and a few other teachers, they run FLL camps, a VEX camp, and have years of experience of doing this.
His contact info is here -http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/member.php?u=4728
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Every summer, team 25 holds a LEGO camp for elementary, and middle school kids, we get them to use NXT’s, and LEGO Mindstorms kits for a couple of weeks.
I could give you the e-mail address of one of the parent mentors that runs it, and he could probably answer your questions. Please feel free to pm me for his contact information.
There are mentors on 2062 (not my team) who also have experience running camps and I’m sure would love to help you guys out.
Team 1071 puts on a class at our towns Summer Studies Program designed around FLL. Classes either compete using the FLL game for the previous Season, or compete in a Battle Bot type game (depends on which variation of the class students pick)
Team 79 runs camps practically all summer, I will have some of the members who are really involved in them PM you about them.
294 runs camps over the summer based on the needs of the team. We typically run one session a week and then use the remainder lab time to build towards a mini-competition (pic).
We typically cover:
- Systems Engineering
- Drive Train Fundamentals
- Mechanisms and Manipulators
- Motor Performance
- Basic Programming
- Advanced Programming
- Scouting
We teach CAD throughout every session and usually have 2 days of dedicated hands on work.
Don’t know if you mean a Lego camp or a Vex camp (we run both), or something else, but here’s some input.
We have found the most enjoyable camp format for us is to simulate a compressed FRC season into one week, and use a miniaturized version of an FRC game. For example last summer we played a scaled-down version of Overdrive (see pic.) The FRC GDC has already fully developed these games, and we as FRC members have already learned and experienced them, so they make a great format for helping summer campers enjoy a competition. 2 or 3 of our members each adopt a student team to coach and mentor. We use vex kits, but also supply plenty of other assorted materials. Teams can “win” extra motors or sensors by winning team-building games, or by exibiting gracious professionalism. We try to give campers the experience of an FRC season by having a kick-off day with the game reveal, brainstorming sessions, a “build season” (3 days!), and a Friday tournament complete with a crowd of family, loud music, a video score/ranking screen, and an entertaining MC. We give FRC-type awards for Spirit, GP, Creativity, Design, etc. Everyone leaves a winner. This is not only a great format for our campers, but also helps our members strengthen their own FRC values, and gain some insight into what its like to mentor and coach a team.
Team 1306 runs a summer camp for elementary and middle school students every summer, and this year, it’s expanded to 120 slots. It’s a great way to introduce kids to robotics, and last year, we made around $30,000 from it, making it a huge source of funding for the team. I’m not an expert on how it’s run, but I can give you a link to our website page about it, and the email address of the teacher who started the summer camp.
Website: http://badgerbots.org/summercamp.htm
Email: [email protected]