Hands on summer engineering camp
Want to shoot off rockets, build a robot, design a bridge, or put together a chemically-powered car? Then, signing up for the KU School of Engineering summer camps would have been the golden ticket. These are the exact types of hands on projects that campers tackle. All the projects cover several differing aspects of the various fields in engineering.
Last week, the School of Engineering concluded the high school girl’s camp Project Discovery. This week, high school sophomore, junior, and senior boys took their turn. 35 boys gathered Sunday at Eaton Hall, located north of Allen Fieldhouse, to kick off the week long camp, KU Survivor: Engineering Outback. This is the first year the camp lasts six days instead of previous years when the camp was only an overnight event.
Dawnelle Prince, the recruitment director for the camp, has been preparing since early May for the camp. She said that the longer camp is necessary for the boys to get a glimpse of college life.
“It’s important that they get to explore the campus and actually see it and experience it,” she said. “These students have been marketed to. They’re the experienced generation. It’s much easier to show the cool things engineers do in a week than in an overnight session.”
On Sunday, the boys gathered for an opening ceremony in which they met the five KU professors that taught throughout the week. The professors presented information over the five engineering subject areas in which the boys chose to study for the remainder of the week. The five areas were: aerospace, civil and architectural, chemical and petroleum, computer science and electrical and mechanical engineering.
The camp fee was $500, which included housing, meals, field trips, and lab supplies. The boys slept and dined at Oliver Hall where KU engineering students were their resident’s assistants. This was just one more way in which the boys got a taste of college life.
Campers then spent the next two days in the classroom where 7 hours each day were intensely devoted to a specific field. The aerospace students spent that time building rockets, which they shoot off this Friday. The chemical and petroleum students spent the week building chemically powered cars. They race their machines on Friday as well.
According to Prince, the key word was: interactive.
“We don’t want the boys just sitting in the classroom learning theory and various principles. They do that in their high school physics class. Interactive learning causes them to understand how real world engineers work,” she said.
After last year’s camp, over 50% of the high school senior campers attended KU the following fall semester. Price hopes that the campers continue to realize just how recognized KU’s engineering program is.
“A lot of people don’t realize that 95% of our engineering classes are taught by faculty and not teaching assistants,” Prince said. “I think this is definitely one of the reasons why the school is so successful.”
Prince said that the majority of professors receive grants from the school for their research and use students to assist them in their work. For this reason, the students are able to enrich their understanding of the subject.
On Wednesday, all 35 campers, the professors, and the RA’s visited the Harley Davidson manufacturing center in Kansas City. They watched the mechanics assemble parts and repair bikes. In the afternoon, they visited a software company in which the engineers showed the boys how they work with computer elements and architectures.
Thursday included more classroom time in which the boys made the finishing touches on their individual or team projects. On Friday, they present their work to the entire camp body. Awards will be given to the best projects by their professors.