Neighbor News
New STEAM Camp in Bethel at Workspace Education
Fly drones, create battle bots, code robots or create interactive art. Pick up mad skills and have a lot of fun!
New STEAM camps are launching in Bethel this July, with programs designed to open the world of coding and robotics to kids.
MKR LAB will run four half-day, week-long camps at Workspace Education in the Clarke Business Park.
"All of our programs are designed to be super engaging for kids so they are motivated to persevere when they inevitably find a bug or their code doesn't work," said Sarah Landis, founder and Chief Maker of MKR LAB. She explained that she gravitates toward physical computing, coding real objects like drones, because that interaction with the object is so much more compelling than just looking at a screen.
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"Coding is an exercise in logic and it has become a foundational literacy," said Landis. "It should also be fun!"
The theme in the morning session from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. July 8 - 12 is Drones. Participants will assemble drones and learn how to program them with block code. They'll create obstacle courses and redesign the drones as hovercraft or cars and create new programs to control them.
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Afternoons from noon to 3 p.m. the week of July 8 - 12 are all about Battle Bots! This is a blend of engineering, circuitry, and coding. Learn about microcontrollers, how to add motors, and how to program two microcontrollers to send and receive signals so one can be used as a remote control. There's a lot of room for creativity in your design. Students will use the engineering design process to improve and refine their robots, a process that helps build perseverance.
Mornings July 29 through August 2 is Coding with Robots. Learn how robots work and how to program them with block code. We'll learn about various sensors, how to use them in our code, and learn about computer science along the way. This is a great first experience with coding for kids ages seven and up.
Create Interactive Art afternoons noon to 3 p.m. July 29 through August 2. Using motors, circuits, lights, sensors and sounds, participants will create a dynamic art installation. No coding experience required.
The high-tech facilities at Workspace Education are air conditioned. Afternoon camps will have a short break outdoors and participants who stay for the whole day can bring lunch or buy food from the new Seeds cafe on site. Recess will be outside. To register go to https://mkrlab.org/mkr-lab-workspace/.
