This camp marks our second Igniting Inspiration STEM camp. Two camps were offered to students entering grades 4 through 6. The first, Alternate Energy, focused on using wind as a source of energy. Students learned about wind turbines and wired a miniature house with lights powered by a battery, turbine, and solar panel. The second, Robotics, involved designing a LEGO NXT Mindstorm robot and programming it to complete certain missions using sensors.
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Curriculum
Sail Cars
Students learned that energy can take many forms, and design different sails to understand both the transfer of energy and its efficiency. They also learned how to calculate the speed of a moving car using the formula
speed = distance/time
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Wind Energy
Students then used propellers and a motor to generate electricity, and learned how to measure their voltage output with a multimeter.
Squishy Circuits
Using conductive dough, LEDs, and a battery, students were able to construct circuits and learn about how chemical energy in a battery becomes electrical energy. They were also taught how parallel and series circuits work.
House Project
After learning about how our modern society uses energy, students created their own model homes out of foam and applied their knowledge of circuitry, using several LEDs and a battery pack. Other sources of energy were then introduced, and students powered their homes using a small solar cell as well as their own mini wind turbine.
Worksheets
Missions
This camp’s missions were based off of the 2011 FIRST LEGO League Game Food Factor.
Download Food Factor Game Document
Building
The building portion consists of using provided LEGO parts to construct an autonomous robot that completes missions outlined by Food Factor.
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Programming
After robots are built, student program the LEGO NXT Mindstorm bricks with drag-and-drop computer software.
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Testing
Robots are then tested and improved upon using the provided FLL tables.
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Parent Day
Alternate Energy
Robotics