A look back at 2016 summer camps

In the Fulton Schools Summer Academy, students in grades 1-12 experience life on Arizona State University campuses and take part in engineering design challenges and activities. Hands-on activities actively engage campers in science, engineering, technology and math to empower them to seek out future STEM opportunities, careers or schooling. This summer, more than 600 students in 19 Fulton Schools Summer Academy camps and 12 faculty-led camps had some great engineering fun.

Here are some highlights to tide you over until registration for our 2017 summer camps starts up in February!

Camp Solaris Prime: Colonize a Planet with Renewable Energy Sources

Students entering grades 5–8 were tasked with a mission to colonize the planet Solaris Prime using only renewable energy sources. Through multiple projects conducted over a week-long camp, they learned the importance of developing renewable technologies while designing and creating an orbital descent vehicle, a solar-powered rover, a hydro-power plant, a wind turbine and a solar oven.

FIRST LEGO League Jr.

Engineering is fun for all ages, and students entering grades 1–3 were introduced to the world of engineering with LEGO. Kids explored a real-world scientific problem and constructed a motorized LEGO model of what they learned. They experienced the wonders of science and technology, and practiced teamwork, respect, sharing and critical thinking skills.

Introduction to FIRST LEGO League — Girls

Over a week-long camp, elementary and middle school girls learned the basics of robotic programming and mechanical design through an autonomous LEGO EV3 robot. They completed a variety of tasks ranging from simple movement to those involving logic and sensors.

FIRST LEGO League Intermediate Camp

Students entering grades 5–8 with some robotics experience learned more advanced techniques in both robotic programming and mechanical design. Teams built, designed and programmed robots that completed tasks that included digital/analog sensors, mechanical sensors, subroutines and advanced logic.

Game Camp

Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering computer science Lecturer Yoshihiro Kobayashi and student teaching assistants taught intensive video game creation, visualization and production to two groups of middle and high school campers. Students used the latest software, hardware and development tools to create concepts and prototypes for 2D video gaming for middle schoolers, and 2D and 3D video gaming for high schoolers.

App Camp

High school students learned how to create an app and received hands-on instruction of fundamental concepts, Apple XCode, Swift 2.0, user interface design, mobile application design and development considerations, interfacing with the web and foundations of debugging source code.

9UP Robotics Camp

Computer science Senior Lecturer Yinong Chen, a computing and robotics expert and ASU Robotics Team advisor, and his teaching assistants taught high school students all about robotics. Students learned to complete robotic challenges with robot construction, Visual Programming Language, C# programming, web programming in Service-Oriented Computing and phone app programming.