Summer Engineering Camp 2013

Thursday afternoon put an exclamation point on a fantastic first year for the Science Center’s summer engineering camp for Burlington third through fifth graders. From the smiles full of pride as students shared their projects at our “open house” finale to the impressive, thoughtful designs of the students’ self-constructed technology, it was clear the pilot program was a great success. Students were not only leaving the camp proud of their engineering marvels, but capable of speaking confidently about “insulators” and “filters” as they shared their projects with friends and family.

Our champion windmill was redesigned to pick up 500g of weight!

Using the iPads to create a presentation sharing our engineering achievements!

Norm Lavigne from the Burlington Public Works taught our stuents about Burlington watersheds before giving a tour of the Mill Pond treatment facility.

A plan for water filters well executed!

Zach and Paul share their filter design.

Dustin, Ayush, and Imtasil strike their best engineer pose.

Sharing a solar oven with mom

The whole family came out to see our great work at the open house

Mrs. Sheppard oversees a final challenge for the filters, clean that dirty water!

The two week program drew predominantly from three Engineering is Elementary units designed by the Museum of Science: Now You’re Cooking – Designing Solar Ovens, Water Water Everywhere – Designing Water Filters, and Catching the Wind – Designing Windmills. They provided a strong science instruction background on which students learned about everything from the different types of engineering jobs to the careful balancing act engineers play between effectiveness and cost (financially and environmentally!) Along the way students squeezed in time to reflect on their engineering experience, creating short Explain Everything slideshows sharing the challenge they undertook, the planning they carried out, and the results of their labor. Their work was then uploaded to a YouTube channel made especially for the program along with their digital portfolios.

I am so thankful to my co-teachers, Christine Sheppard and Elana Marsh, who jumped into this pilot program feet first and gave many more hours beyond those compensated (as so many teachers do!) In addition the program would not have run as smoothly as it did without the tremendous assistance from Burlington student (past and present) volunteers, Sharleen Varghese, Sarah Fleischmann, Marina Grasso, and Shinji Coram.

I’d also like to thank Norm Lavigne of the Mill Pond Water Treatment facility in Burlington for opening their doors and giving us a fabulous tour of how Burlington filters and distributes its water to their population. Students were in awe of the massive facility that used both conventional chemical and environmentally friendly filter techniques!

Keep a close eye out for information on next year’s engineering summer program sometime after April Vacation in 2014. We look forward to improving on this year’s achievements and creating an even more enriching experience for our Burlington students.