Day 3

What a finale! Day 3 was jam packed with fun, enthusiasm, and explorations. It was so very exciting while it lasted. We had a blast and are so sad it is over. It went so fast! Thank you for letting us host your children. They were truly a JOY to have at Iowa State.

We will post a blog post each day with highlights from camp and some conversation starters. The conversation starters are meant to help you get over the “What did you learn today?” “Nothin’” or <shrugging the shoulders> we often see at the adolescent age. We will also post a link to the photos we are taking throughout the week. If at any time you want a photo removed that is of your child, please let us know and we’ll be happy to take it down.

Morning

Students started their morning creating a structure built out of colored blocks. Only one team member was allowed to view a structure and provide verbal instructions for their team members to try to copy the structure. Several groups were able to successfully create the structure without ever seeing it. The rest of the morning we investigated bridges with Mr. Jim Nelson, a civil engineer with the Iowa Department of Transportation. We learned about many types of bridges found in Iowa and beyond. Students used notecards and wood blocks to design a bridge capable of holding 8-10 ounces. Students created an impressive variety of bridge designs.

Afternoon

For lunch, we enjoyed pizza and strawberries. After lunch, we worked on a challenge one of the secretaries presented us. She has young children and asked us to figure out which diapers are the best buy for her money. Students reverse engineered diapers by taking them apart to look at all of the parts. We removed the water absorbent polymers that are the essential component of diapers to test which diaper could hold the most water. After calculating the cost per diaper, student teams recommended which diaper they thought was the best buy based on their tests.

After working on designing, testing, and building cars all week, we finally got to test them today. Students entered their cars into a camp-wide bracket to determine whose design was the fastest. The cars varied in size, length, weight, and wheel size. It was fun to see which cars were designed for speed.

Our day ended with the excitement of making ice cream. First, students made a single serving of ice cream using plastic baggies, ice cream mix, ice, and rock salt. Next, we used liquid nitrogen to make speedy ice cream. Since there was a lot of liquid nitrogen remaining after we made our ice cream, we used it to create a large cloud. It was a great way to end camp with a BANG!

In their own words

Each day we’ll post some excerpts from the students’ reflections of what they learned each day at the STEM Content session. We don’t correct for spelling or grammar in these.

“it was all an amazing Journey!”

“You can make ice-cream out of Liquid Nightrogen.”

“There is different ways to make ice cream. It took forever to make the ice cream [in a baggie with ice and salt].”

I learned “there are over 1,000 bridges in Iowa”

“I want to see how bridges will change through out the years.”

“I learned that beam bridges were made out of steal.”

I learned “the higher [a ramp] is the faster”

“I loved everything!”

Conversation Starters

We know your child is getting to the age where it might be hard to get them to talk about their day beyond, “It was fine.” “It was fun.” “I didn’t do anything.” So, each day we’ will post some suggested conversation starters centered on camp activities or STEM-related themes.

• Ask your student about the car they designed. Why did your child choose the wheels, shape, etc. that they did?
• When you cross a bridge, talk to your student about what kind of bridge it is.
• Talk about what engineers need to consider when building bridges.
• Discuss what your child learned about diapers and how polymers are used in everyday products in your home.
• Encourage your child to consider which careers use Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Ask what careers and college majors they are considering.
• Ask your child if they want to attend the STEM InCYte Camp next year. We would LOVE to have them join us again!

Photos of the Day

Each day we’ll post camp highlights. Please note that we try to capture pictures of all the campers, but we cannot guarantee that we will get every single one. We try our very best to though! Also we are STEM teachers and not full time photographers, so our pictures are not perfect and we leave them unedited, so if you love to edit photos… feel free!