Week 4, Day 2: It IS Rocket Science

We started the day learning a little about the forces that make a rocket go up (thrust from the engine) and those that resist it going up (friction from the air and gravity). We discussed how these influence how high a rocket will go. For many toy rockets (like the ones we built later) all of the thrust is right at the beginning and the rocket slows down over time.

We watched a few videos of rocket and space shuttle launches:

Space Shuttle Atlantis Launch - Nov 16, 2009

Atlas V rocket launch - May 22, 2014

Delta II rocket launch - July 2, 2014

The third video sparked a discussion of why we did not hear the voices of any women in the countdown. We also noticed in the space shuttle video that unlike toy rockets, the space shuttle kept going faster and faster after launch - they identified a couple of reasons for this - continued thrust from the engines as well as less air resistance as the space shuttle got higher - great thinking!



We then built paper stomp rockets, assembled the launchers, and tried them out. They were a hit, and could actually go quite high. The instructions for building the rockets are here:


Paper Stomp Rocket Instructions

I did make a modification to this to increase durability by having them make a ring of scotch tape around the PVC pipe with sticky side out - so that when they wrap their paper rocket into a tub the tape is on the inside bottom end (sticking out a little bit). This can then be folded over the outside of the tube. This protects the end of the rocket that goes over the launcher. At the end of the day some of the kids made stomp jets as well. Instructions for these are here:

Stomp Jet Instructions

Here they are with their completed rockets

 

And here is the first launch

After lunch we went to the field next to Ledyard Middle School to launch Estes Solid Fuel Model Rockets. We first explained some safety rules and showed them how the rockets work.

Then it was time for launch

 

And then everyone would run to retrieve the rockets at they came down

 

 

I think everyone had a great time with rocket science.

Week 4, Day 1: Solar Energy? No, more circuits.

Planning note for next year: when your schedule for the day revolves around solar energy, check the weather forecast and make a backup plan if necessary.

We did a quick shift to a morning of DISASSEMBLY. Turns out kids REALLY LOVE IT when you give them tools and instruct them to break stuff. And yes, they can really do it, with real tools! Obviously, I wouldn't recommend this activity for a very young set, but with some light supervision and warnings about sharp sheet metal and metals of unknown providence, they can totally handle it (and they are super psyched to get at the guts of everyday objects). I started the morning by setting up our "takeapart station" with an old computer keyboard and three cellular phones. Their mission on the phones was to disassemble the cases, then find and extract the phones' vibrating motors. The keyboard was just for fun, and was a little easier for our younger friends.

In about an hour and a half of work, the kids absolutely shredded the phones. They were down to a pile of components that couldn't be separated without heat or chemical intervention. And success! We had found three more motors for some fun future projects. Everyone was excited to see that they looked just like our brushbot motors. 

The keyboard was a surprising thrill as well. We had lots of good chatter about how it worked, with its double flexible circuit board, tiny processor, and rubber membrane. "Can we keep some keys?" "Sure, if you can figure out a safe way to pop them out!"

We flipped through a great book: Things Come Apart, by Todd McLellan. This is a book of photographs of disassembled electronic and everyday items. There are two photos for each item: one of all the parts in a jumble, and one of all the parts laid out neatly. Enjoy those orderly photos? Check out Things Organized Neatly, my favorite site for things organized by Knolling. What's Knolling? You'll know it when you see it.

We even snuck in a little optical play: there were multiple layers of shielding inside the phones -- some made a double image when you looked through, some made everything purple. One even acted like a periscope and let us sort of see around corners!

Checked the weather again and... nope, still looks like rain. OK, onto our next contingency plan... question circuits! Everyone thought of a multiple choice question and we wired up quiz boards. When you touch the bare wire to the right answer, the LED lights up! Well, it's supposed to light up. Some of us needed to do a little tinkering first. 

And then? Just when I'd given up hope? SUN! Finally. We managed to cram in just one of our solar projects: shirts dyed with Lumi's awesome product, Inkodye. This is a fabric dye that's activated by light. It works just like a cyanotype, though I'm sure the actual chemical process is different. Now, I have to admit, I didn't put this activity through the ringer ahead of time. The dye was a Christmas gift from my husband and it's a bit pricey. I was worried about wasting too much in developing the activity. So we tried a few different techniques. Some kids put leaves and plant pieces under sheets of glass (I raided all the picture frames in the house and borrowed the glass), sort of like this tutorial from SheKnows. This worked great, and those kids ended up with great prints. A couple of kids did something similar, but used cutouts from the newspaper to make shapes, then slid those under a plate of glass. This also worked really well. And the rest of the kids used dry erase marker to make a design or some words right on the glass -- this was a sad trombone failure. BUT the good news is that we have spent all summer at our house learning about how to make a catastrophe into a triumphant moment so everyone that went home with a red square or a blue square is going to brainstorm a way to improve their shirt. (And I think a couple were actually pleased with the shirts just as they were!) So no great tutorial here and no After photos (I think I was just too bummed to bother). But maybe we'll have more to report on this in the future. [Ed. Note: I've seen the "After" versions of some of these shirts and they look great -- Sharpies made great tools for design augmentation.]

Finally, we settled into the shade for a little reading and some journal writing. It was a hot one, and more spontaneous than our usual routine here, but I think everyone ended up having a great time.

Week 3, Day 4 - Music & Mayhem

So considering the weather was threatening (though the t-storms never formed, but just ended up muggy & cloudy) and two campers were missing this week, I thought THIS was the day to try teaching some music. My real job (other than mom) is teaching Kindermusik, a music & movement program for the very young. Teaching older kids music is not my forte, but I thought it might be fun since some seemed interested to sing and my own kids (one of whom was among the missing) love singing with me :) . 

As the children arrived a Rainbow Loom frenzy broke out in my kitchen. It was hard to break up, and they were having so much fun I let them loom for quite a while. But eventually I thought it would be a good idea to actually make some music. 

We started by playing a rhythm game "Ali Babba". One person leads (me) by saying "Al-i Bab-ba and the forty thieves" all the while tapping or clapping to that spoken beat. Sadly this seemed to set a tone for silliness. And then the next game where you clap and name something on a topic (fruit , for example and list apple, pears cherries etc... ) For some reason some of the children seemed to be self conscious (goofy tweens) so it became a silly contest and when "pizza" was listed as a fruit... three times ... the giggles won out... 

So then I tried some rounds. I explained to the kids that harmony is naturally produced with rounds, but you only need to know a simple melody, so if you listen you can learn to sing parts of a larger choir. We sang row row row your boat with some success and then used an ostinato, singing the resting note (c) in Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to show how it worked. Strangely those were somewhat successful, but I could tell the attention was waning. So one last attempt we created a "Birds Chorus" with simple notes. (comes from my curriculum that I teach the adults to model the behavoir of layering music) I do really wish I had a video, because when concentrating they really did sound pretty cool. 

We then broke for lunch and free time.  Looming again was popular, as was playing with our dog and even some lovely piano playing. (I could feel my dad's spirit smiling.)

After our break, I figured I have one more attempt at music theme with some dancing - to make it more structured we took on some simple line dancing. Again silliness prevailed, but we still had a good ole time being silly and actually learning some of the steps so that in a pinch they'd all be good at a wedding LOL

The rest of the day was 10 minutes of journal-ling with snack and getting ready for pick up. 

Still really love hanging out with these kids, even when they are being age appropriately silly. :) 

Week 3, Day 3: Leagues

[Ed. note: Wish I could take credit, but this post was written by Chris.]

"The prudent, steady man who wants a lasting place, immune from blasting winds and dangerous waves, should avoid high mountain peaks and the shore's shifting sands. For the mountain tops are lashed by terrifying gale-winds; and the loose sand of the beach will not bear his weight. Leave then the dangerous places of delight, and make your home safely on the low rocks. Though the wind trouble the sea with threats of destruction, you will live a serene life, happy for having built a strong house in the quiet valley, and laughing at the wrath of the elements."

Having contemplated these lines, spoken to Boethius by Philosophy, we took the low road to the park, the largest and smallest of our company traveling by automobile, the rest on their bicycles. A great racket and ball hoard accompanied those of us in the car. Upon reaching our destination, I appointed myself Sentinel of Vehicles and Guardian of the Waters, shooting baskets as I fulfilled these duties. Quinn was the first to return to the home base, having reported that the much anticipated tennis matches deteriorated rather quickly. He joined me in shooting baskets. I learned later, but cannot claim to have witnessed, that most of the others elected to spy on and stalk Groton's official campers, possibly taunting these latter with the obvious superiority of the small-batch, artisinal camp experience.

The day was very hot, and even after dipping into the liquid refreshment we brought along, it was universally decided to head back to the estate. We were lucky to escape with our lives.

Back at the house we took to the shade and ate lunch. Then we attempted a discussion of Jules Verne and his underwater fantasy. I let loose some words on Verne and H.G. Wells and the important themes of science fiction that these two writers bequeathed to posterity. For the most part these words were lost in the summer breeze.

Then we essayed plans and models of our Nautili. Juliana sculpted a lovely dolphinesque vessel. Adrian cut his finger with his pocket knife. Scarlett made some sort of Thing-Pig.

The rest is darkness.

Week 3, Day 2: Business Plans

Today we learned all about what it takes to start a business. Each of the campers shared what they might want to do for work when they grow up. Next we talked about what kind of organization they might work for in that job: 

We talked about how before the Industrial Revolution, lots of people were their own bosses. Then factories came along and hundreds of people worked for a single employer. Today our career aspirations often rely on having an employer who takes on the risk and responsibility of running a business. 

We talked about the four basic elements of a business plan:

Then we learned about Maddie who turned a middle school craft project a million-dollar business (skip to 0:59 for Maddie's story):




Next we walked to the local brick-oven pizza place to learn from Stephanie, whose pizza has become a favorite at our house. She took us back into the kitchen where all the prep work is done, let us walk into the huge refrigerator, and showed us the massive dough mixing machine. We even got an up-close look at the wood-fired oven.

We found out that when food prices increase, you have to print thousands of new menus. We learned that it took a whole year to build the restaurant and that Stephanie works seven days a week running it. That's a lot of work!

After downing some of Stephanie's famous pizza, we visited the nearby cemetery where we found two letterboxes:

Then we had lunch and did some climbing on the playscape: 

Once we had baked sufficiently in the sun, we headed to the secret air-conditioned basement room of the library where we built our business plans. There was individual brainstorming,

then peer review, feedback, and collaboration.

 Finally, the campers presented their plans to the group.

Topics included birthday party entertainment, food services, hair accessories, remote control helicopters, babysitting, business naming, and used books and articles. There was some good thinking going on!

On the way home we stopped by our the gourmet ice cream place (another small business!) for a scoop,

a peek at the chickens,

a shorter visit to the pigs,

and a climb.

Back at home we rode bikes, recorded impressions of the day in our journals, and created business cards to go with our business plans. Another great Darwin day!

Bonus material:

• Have a plan, Stan!
• What a teen's summer job can teach us about good business practices
• How to help your kids launch a small business this summer

Week 3, Day 1: Marble Roller Coaster Challenge!

What a day we had today! After last week's brushbot engineering successes, the kids were ready for an even bigger challenge. Our goal? Marble roller coasters, made from pieces of split foam pipe insulation.

We started out with some simpler, beginner challenges. Build a drop that makes your marble land in a paper cup. Then build a drop that incorporates a vertical loop, then deposits the marble in a cup. I let the kids choose their own working groups, or choose to work independently.

At this point, we were focusing on understanding some of the basic physics involved, and the mechanics of our specific building materials. We took a quick break to regroup and we talked about some of the things we were noticing. Some of the older kids have already been exposed to some physics terms that were useful as we discussed what we were noticing. Here's a link to a great website that talks about energy transformation along a roller coaster track. It has a neat animation that shows the change in energy. Here's a link to a cool video from MIT demonstrating the minimum height needed for a released ball to make it around a (round) loop. Finally, here's a link to a (unnecessarily drawn out) video of a stunt man actually running a loop-the-loop.

We had a little while before lunch, and decided to open up the challenge to do some free building that we would continue later, too. During our free building time, we had a visit from a special guest: the mayor of our city! 

Mayor Galbraith (and her small friend!) joined us for some building, and answered some GREAT questions: 

• What kinds of things did you tell people you would do so they would vote for you?
• What do you like to do with kids?
• Will you build marble roller coasters at work?
• Did you know you wanted to be a mayor when you were a kid?

And without further ado, we got right back into building.

After lunch, we regrouped and talked about some engineering constraints that a roller coaster designer might be asked to follow. Here are some questions that an engineer might ask the theme park company before deciding to propose a roller coaster design:

• What building materials do you prefer, or what's available?
• What's my budget?
• When does the roller coaster need to be finished?
• What are the safety constraints?
• What kind of weather does this amusement park get?
• How much maintenance are you willing to do?
• What features do you want to see incorporated? Some ideas: loops, corkscrews, turns, drops, high maximum speed

At this point, things got VERY SERIOUS. We worked together to develop a scoring rubric and the teams split up to tackle the challenge:

Building to specific constraints meant that some of our designs got very complicated! In fact, when it was time to add up our scores, only the very simplest designs were even able to pass a marble all the way down to the cup. We talked about some of the challenges we'd faced, and we all agreed that the scoring was just a fun way to close out the activity, and wasn't meant to be a real competition. 

Finally, we took a little time for journalling. The kids are getting more and more serious about this. It is always hard to settle down for some quiet reflection, but once they do, they're generating some awesome work. I think some of them will really enjoy reviewing their journals after camp ends -- they're turning into great mementos of their time in camp! 

Finally, we made a quick Vine showing a bit of the building and the tracks in use, here it is! Hope everyone had a great day!