BrainSTEM Camp

We provide camp for two separate age groups. One camp is for students going into grades three through five, and the other is for students going into grades six through eight. This helps library staff when they select the STEM activities. We want the activities to be challenging but doable for each age group, giving each age group a sense of accomplishment when they’ve completed their goals. 

Camp activities in the past have included an egg drop from the top of the library, designing and cooking in a solar oven, experimenting with 3D modeling and printing, creating a model car that moved by chemical reaction, and constructing hydraulic-powered cranes. This year we gave each of our camps a theme. This year’s themes were “Ozobot Survival Camp” for grades 3-5 and “Look to the Stars” for grades 6-8.

At “Ozobot Survival Camp,” participants were put into groups. Each group had their own Ozobots that were dropped into a specific landscape, including mountains, jungle, desert and plains. To survive in their landscape, the Ozobots had to blend in or use camouflage. To illustrate camouflage to the participants, we played several games. In one game real camouflaged animals had to be found in photos. In another game, yellow Skittles were placed in bowls of single color M&Ms. Each group was given 20 seconds to find all the yellow Skittles. The bowls were rotated from group to group, so that each group could see how much more difficult it is to find yellow Skittles in a bowl of yellow M&Ms.

After the camouflage games, participants designed camouflage for their Ozobots. Another element of the Ozobot Survival Camp involved crossing rivers using only the available items in each landscape to build a bridge. Before the bridge building began, participants performed tensile tests on paper to determine which shape provides the most strength under tension, providing information that came in handy during bridge-building. A third activity involved coding the Ozobots to perform various tasks.

During "Look to the Stars," the camp for older students, participants not only learned about circuits, they used their new knowledge to create a work of art for their room at home, designing and constructing their own light-up constellation.

Campers complete physical tasks, such as camouflaging Ozobots, building bridges, coding and creating a light-up constellation for their rooms, so we see physical results of given tasks. Parents express appreciation for the effort we put into the camps. The obvious enthusiasm and camaraderie among the campers is enough to keep us creating STEM camps for years to come. (View photos of camp participants under Photo Slideshow.)