Design Challenge Science Day Camp

NATURE BY DESIGN
Outdoor Education Adventures and Expeditionary Learning Programs

NO CHILD LEFT INDOORS

It’s time to get excited: Spend five fun-filled days designing roller coasters, bobsleds, and stomp rockets. Compete with your friends to see how far you can get a stomp rocket to fly! A variety of activities in chemistry and life science also awaits you, including investigations in chemical reactions, and acids and bases and a close look at living cells. These and many more exciting activities will teach basic concepts in science. Here’s your chance to participate in a variety of Design Challenges, and hands-on, minds-on activities! The cost for this weeklong program is $200.00 which includes all student materials and supplies. Click here to read the full descriptions of science activities that students will participate in during the week.

DESIGN CHALLENGE DESCRIPTIONS

PHYSICS OF ROLLER COASTERS
They love to ride ‘em, now they'll love to build ‘em! Students explore kinetic and potential energy, friction, and Newton's 1st and 2nd Laws of Motion while building their own marble roller coasters.

DESIGN A BOB-SLED
Students explore the effects of gravity, friction and air resistance upon acceleration when they design their own bobsleds.

CIRCLE OF PONG
Students use their knowledge of potential and kinetic energy, and explore forces and motion to place a ball into the center of a 6-foot diameter circle.

MICROSCOPIC JOURNEYS
The students use microscopes to peer into the amazing structures of a variety of living and nonliving things, learning about microscope parts and usage. Looking closely at organisms, plant tissue, and other specimens introduces students to parts and structures that make up the microscopic and macroscopic world.

WHAT’S THAT THING IN THE WATER?
Backswimmers, water boatmen, water striders, hungry dragonfly larvae and a myriad of other amazing pond creatures are the focus of this investigation designed to help students understand the complexity and design of nature’s ecosystems.

SQUID: The Inside Story
Students discover unique structures and adaptations as they examine and dissect fresh squid. They identify parts of the digestive, respiratory, and reproductive systems of male and female squid.

CHEMICAL PROPERTIES
This class brings the periodic table alive! From protons, neutrons and electrons, to chemical reactions, students explore the chemistry of different elements and compounds through exciting demonstrations and hands-on experiments.

CHEMICAL REACTIONS
Students mix substances that fizz, change color, and produce gases and heat. They refer to the periodic table of elements when analyzing the reactants and products as they examine these chemical reactions.

SLIME!
Is slime a solid, a liquid, a gas, or something in between? Students consider the differences between these phases of matter and discuss their properties, to create a working definition. They then measure and mix two liquids together and categorize their slimy results.

TEETER TOWERS
In this Design Challenge, students work together to design the tallest structure that can support an egg, using only the materials provided.

MAGNET CIRCUS
Explore the properties of magnets by designing a device that can move as far as possible using only magnets to move it, then design a machine that will stay in motion for the greatest period of time.

EXPLORING BUOYANCY
Students design a barge that will float the largest cargo of pennies as you learn about buoyancy, density, volume and pressure.

STOMP ROCKET
Using simple materials, students will design rockets and see whose can fly the farthest and most accurately. Once a successful rocket is designed, students will then work to increase the accuracy of their rocket launch in order to hit a Planet X.

MARS LANDING
Students explore the concepts of forces and motion as they design protective devices that will enable their “Egg Rovers” to safely land on a surface after being dropped from a designated height.

SPUDS IN SPACE
Students investigate force and motion as they design spacesuits for their potato astronauts that can withstand the hazards of high-velocity impacts from space debris and meteoroids.