Week 4: STEAM Smorgasbord
July 15 - July 19
Instructors: Various
This week will provide a different theme and instructor each day to introduce campers to a variety styles and projects.
Monday (July 15)
Shadow Theatre with Lauren Cage
In this day’s journey, campers will explore shadow puppet construction
while being introduced cultural history of shadow theater.
9:00am Intro/Warm Up Activity: Monster Stick Puppets
Campers will be given a quick introduction to shadow puppetry and how it
has historically been a form of storytelling around the world. Then, for a warm up activity,
they will create a simple stick shadow puppet of a monster they make up.
They will draw their design on black cardstock, cut it out and attach to a craft stick with tape.
Then we will go around the room and they will tell us what their monster is called and something about it.
9:30am Lesson: Introduction to Shadow Theater
> What is a shadow? (science of light and shadow)
> Brief cultural history of shadow theater storytelling
> Bringing shadows to life: controls, joints, fixed positions, orientation, design (color, decoration, circuitry)9:50am Activity: Shadow Puppet Making
Campers will explore mechanisms of motion by creating an articulated rod shadow puppet.
They will use black cardstock to cut out a 2D figure like the warm up, but this time
they will also need to include separate, moveable parts. Using the Puppet Mechanics board for reference,
they will explore different ways of giving their puppets expression and personality through motion.
Campers will also be encouraged to try other shadow puppetry effects, such as creating negative space
or adding colored gel parts to their puppets to create a colorful shadow.
10:15am BREAK
10:30am Continue Shadow Puppet Making
12:00pm LUNCH
12:45pm Lights off, puppet play time
We will turn out the lights in the room so campers can try out their puppets and watch each other perform.
This will be casual puppet play, with multiple people playing at the theaters at once.
Campers are encouraged to have their puppets interact and organically build stories together.
1:00pm TINKER TIME
Campers are welcome to tinker with whatever project they’d like. if they would like to continue
exploring shadow play, I will have a couple of suggestions, such as creating a shadow mask
or using circuitry to create lighting effects.
2:30pm Daily Camper Assessment
2:45pm Clean Up
3:00pm Camper Pick Up
Photos
Tuesday (July 16)
Bubble Adventures with Erin Salter
Have some fun with chemistry as we experiment with bubble solutions to get the perfect bubble!
9:00am Warm Up Activity: What makes a bubble?
Campers will learn about what makes a basic soap/water bubble and how we can change bubble size,
duration, stability, and even color by mixing ingredients you can find in your kitchen or grocery store.
We’ll also talk about how bubble wands are designed work to create a film you can blow out into a bubble.
Campers will write a brief description of what they want to include in their bubble mix and
how they think the bubbles will behave
9:30am Activity/Lesson: Bubble Mix Making
Each camper will make their own bubble mix and test/record results outside.
10:15am BREAK
10:30am Activity/Lesson: Bubble Mixing cont...
Test and revise! Students can make another bubble mix with different ingredients to see the difference
between formulas, or tweak their first formula. We will also experiment with making unique bubble wands
to make lots of little bubbles, huge bubbles, etc. Before lunch we will go in and discuss our observations
and what the campers think made the best bubbles and why.
12:00pm LUNCH
12:45pm Wrap up morning activity:
1:00pm TINKER TIME
2:30pm Daily Camper Assessment
2:45pm Clean Up
3:00pm Camper Pick Up
Photos
Wednesday (July 17)
Game Design with Joon Luther
9:00am Warm Up Activity:
9:30am Activity/Lesson: Design & Build Your Game
Campers will work in small teams to design a simple game in Javascript.
They will use pixel art to draw a character, background, and other objects in the game.
They will learn basic programming to add functionality to their game.
10:15am BREAK
10:30am Activity/Lesson: Design & Build Your Game, continued
12:00pm LUNCH
12:45pm TINKER TIME
2:30pm Daily Camper Assessment
2:45pm Clean Up
3:00pm Camper Pick Up
Photos
Thursday (July 18)
"Make it Sew" with Danielle Martin
Students learn how to set up pre-programmed micro-controller units and use them to enhance a product’s functionality and personality. 9:00am Intro: Which Star Trek Monster Are You Today? (& Why?)
9:15 am Hand Sew a Shape
~ Pick a Monster Head Shape
~ Pick a prototyping fabric (felt)
~ Cut 2x the shape
DEMO - Running vs Whip Stitch
10:00 am Reflection
What brings out my monster? Frustrations with Sewing & Skills Sharing
10:15am BREAK
10:30am Brainstorm - How might we “enhance a product’s functionality and personality”?
10:45 am Micro-Controllers
~ What is a microcontroller?
~ Why do we need them to design e-textiles or wearables?
~ Why LilyPad vs Arduino?
DEMO - Sew & Test a Simple Sewn Circuit FIRST
11:00 am Sketch - Show your circuit design before trying to sew (in journal)
11:15 am Sew a Circuit into your monster.
11:45am Reflection
Gallery Walk - Monster Prototype Sharing
12:00pm LUNCH
12:45pm Reflection
~ What brings out my SEWING monster?
~ Sewn Circuit Debugging
HINTS group discussion and/or journal entry
1:00pm TINKER TIME
ITERATE - How might we take my monster further?
2:30pm Reflection - Document your iterations in your journal.
Daily Camper Assessment
2:45pm Clean Up
3:00pm Camper Pick Up
Photos
Friday (July 19)
Fun With Fonts with Eric Victorino
Have some fun changing you perceptions of the meanings of works by writing them in different fonts.
9:00 am Intro + Presentation + Discussion
9:30 am Font Puzzle (full group collaboration) - An Einstein quote about the power of imagination,
with each word in a different font.
100 characters will be printed on a card, and all the cards will be shuffled and spread on the floor.
The campers will need to sort the letters according to font, then figure out what the whole quote is.
10:30 am Snack
10:45 am Handwriting, Signatures and designing your Monogram
Campers will create a three dimensional cardboard sculpture of their initials. Sketch 3, pick one, refine + build it!
12:30 pm Lunch
1:15 pm Tinker Time
Campers can finish their monogram or work on something new.
2:30 pm Snack
2:45 pm Survey + Clean Up + Showcase Prep
3:30 pm Showcase
4:3o pm Camper Pick Up
Photos
