STEAM in the Summer A new radnor township school district Summer camp

Radnor Township School District's new, four-day summer camp was a big hit, with full enrollment in both sessions of STEAM in the Summer. Held at Radnor Middle School in July 2017 and led by K-8 Instructional Coach Beth Zigmont, the camp aimed to spark young students' interest in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics while developing their problem solving and critical thinking skills.

Coding

On day one, campers learned how to use Scratch and Code.org to code using Blockly. They linked visual blocks from Blockly's "toolbox" together to program creative cartoon games.
Campers also programmed app-enabled Ozobots (left) and Sphero balls (right), dictating their movement and color.
Other campers enhanced their understanding of electronics and programming by using littleBits coding kits to construct various electrical circuits.

Students built paper goggles as part of an introductory activity to Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR).

Students experienced AR using 3D glasses.

The most popular activity was VR gaming.

AR and VR

Ms. Zigmont demonstrates the functionality of Aurasma, an AR application that allows you to overlay media over any scannable surface.
Campers draw trigger images to encode hidden content on with Aurasma.
On the last day, all the campers worked collaboratively on a Breakout Box game, solving a series of critical thinking puzzles in order to open a locked box.

Looking into the future, STEAM in the Summer 2018 activities are planned to be supplemented by even more advanced tech, including the programmable Nao robot.

Campers eagerly anticipate interacting with Nao.
My favorite part of camp was programming the different robots. It made learning how to code fun!

- Johnny (grade 8)

The 48 rising 6th-, 7th- and 8th-graders who participated in this exciting hands-on program felt their interest in STEAM either sparked or further developed through completing engineering challenges, learning the basics of coding and programming, and understanding the use of AR and VR, and much more.

STEAM in the Summer offered something for everyone. A few of this year's campers, Sammy (grade 7), Emma (grade 6), and Sophie (grade 6), share their thoughts:

I really like animation and coding, and this camp taught me some of the skills I'll need to know when I get a computer science job.
I wanted to try a STEAM activity for the first time and it's really cool learning using the robots and technology here.
This camp is helping me get ready for the science classes I'll take in middle school!

With such a successful debut, next summer's camp promises even more creative, fun-filled exploration in STEAM!

Created by Jessica Lin, Radnor High School Class of 2017

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