Engineering Week #2 2025

We had so much fun with Engineering Week 1 earlier this summer that we decided to do it all again! Well...with a few new surprises! Keeping on the same track as the first week, we started with mechanical engineering on Monday. Campers worked on designing their own catapults and testing to see how far we could launch the cotton balls. We also launched a penny to see how different projectiles would react. The penny ended up going further than the cotton ball. We then switched to create mouse trap cars. Many campers opted for three wheeled cars and cars with big wheels in the back and small wheels in the front to add some style.

On Tuesday, we learned about industrial and biomedical engineering! Starting with industrial engineering, we played the Gourbi Burrito Optimization game. Campers really pushed themselves to try to beat the game and do better than the AI optimization player. After snack, we switched to biomedical engineering and created our robo hands. Campers expanded the challenge and tried to make the hands wearable by creating straps to go around their wrists. To finish the day, we did the pill coating activity were we once again messed around with oobleck and other concoctions to try to keep the color of the skittles from showing in the club soda.

Computer science and electrical engineering was on Wednesday. Campers created different circuits with their partners and snap circuits kits. We lit up LEDs and created doorbells with the sound blocks and speakers. We followed this up with programming pre-built LEGO® robots. Campers had to get their robots through a maze tapped down to their tables. There was a small surprise for the campers when they finished the maze. We brought out a special challenge where campers had to open a LEGO® puzzle box where they had to push and pull pieces in the correct order to get out the rings inside.

Thursday was controlled chaos for chemical and biological engineering. Starting with biological engineering, campers fingerprinted themselves and analysis what type of fingerprints they had. We had many siblings at camp together, so we talked about how they had similar fingerprints but still unique! Just as unique as fingerprints, so is DNA! The next activity was to extract DNA from a strawberry. Campers started by gently smashing the strawberry in a Ziploc bag before adding soap, water, and a pinch of salt. They then created their filters out of a paper towel, cup, and a rubber band. After they poured their mixture onto the towel and waited five minutes, we added isopropyl alcohol and got to see the strings of DNA floating in the cup. Right after snack, we created bioluminescent jars out of highlighters. Campers pulled the felt inside and tip from highlighters and added water to jars before shaking them really well. When the jars were hit with UV light, they glowed! Switching to chemical engineering, campers test which % of hydrogen peroxide would create the biggest elephant toothpaste explosion. Campers had the option of 3% or 6% hydrogen peroxide.

Finishing up the week, we dived into the discipline of civil engineering. Campers worked in groups of two to create the tallest towers made only of dried spaghetti noodles, marshmallows, and tape. Our tallest tower ended up being 28 inches! Seeing that the spaghetti noodles were not the most sturdy material for building, our next activity used an even more sturdy material...PAPER! Campers got one piece of paper and 8 inches of tape to create a structure to support the most weight. Many campers started out by crumbling the paper into a ball which supported one book for a few seconds before it slid off. The next few attempts used columns which supported more of the books and a few of the batteries. Our last activity for the week was to create popsicle stick bridge. Campers had to create a bridge to span 13 inches and support the most weight. A few campers created truss bridges while others created more flat bridges.

Thank you to Little Debbie for sponsoring our event and providing snacks for our campers! Thank you to FTC Team 7209 Tech Hog Robotics and FTC Team 8373 Diva Force for volunteering and working with our campers!