Logistics and EXPECTATIONS

Format of the Online Camp

This 2021 Online Summer Design Innovation and Robotics camp will be the offered to selected middle to high school students from various Long Island schools. While this program has been traditionally offered in-person, due to the crisis caused by the COVID-19, this year's program will be offered virtually and using a flipped format. We will be using zoom and google classroom for conducting both synchronous and asynchronous activities.

In this new format, students will go through the learning material at their own pace and in advance of the actual two-week period of the camp. To facilitate this, students will receive their robot kits and curriculum ahead of the camp and they will be expected to follow instructions in a structured fashion. While there will be considerable freedom and flexibility in completing the assigned tasks, all participants would be expected to complete them by milestone dates as posted. The goal is to ensure that all students are well-prepared with fundamentals by the beginning of the camp, so that they can spend two-weeks designing, building, and programming their robots.

This is an intense camp and will demand full attention and therefore if you have a job or internship during the pre-camp or camp weeks, please do not apply for this program. This means that you need to dedicate a full three weeks to this program.

Communication

Before the program, instructors will be available to answer any questions related to the content using asynchronous mediums, such as online discussion forums, while during the camp, they will also be available via synchronous communication platforms, such as zoom. The two weeks of the school would be a concentrated and high-intensity period culminating in a capstone robot design project to be done in a team. The final day of the camp would end with a live demo of students' robots over zoom. Certificates would be mailed out upon successful completion of the program.

Expectations

1. In advance of the camp, each student will receive a robot kit along with learning materials at their home or be asked to pick it up from a designated location, if the conditions permit. Upon receiving the kit, they will be asked to check-in with the teaching team within 24 hours and confirm having received all the parts as will be mentioned in the learning material.

2. Each student will complete the pre-camp activities and lessons in the week preceding the two camp weeks as assigned by the teaching team and submit their work as code, photographs, videos, reports, etc. on a website details of which would be provided later on.

3. During the two-weeks of the camp, students will complete daily activities as assigned by the teaching team and post their work. In addition, they will be available for the online conferencing with the teaching team. We expect that the students will be available from 9 am to 3 pm every day during the camp. A detailed schedule will be posted later on. The online sessions will consist of a combination of teaching session, group presentation, discussion, Q&A, and line-coding and designing sessions. Full participation will be required from each student.

4. The camp will end with an online finale, where in each student will present his/her robot. Students who satisfactorily complete all the activities will receive a certificate of completion.

5. All students will need access to a Windows/Mac computer with internet connection. They will also be asked to install certain open source software; therefore, if students have been loaned a computer from their school or elsewhere and do not have administrative access, they will need to make arrangements with their school to have software installed. Chrome books have not worked for students in the past.

6. All students will also need an email account and be asked to sign up for google classroom for receiving communications with the teaching team and for online participation.