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Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Lego Engineering Challenge at the YMCA, Day 2

Today, on Day 2 of my Lego Summer Camp journal, we made cars with treads to complete the day's objective (make a car and/or machine that can bring a small-sized practice baseball out of a bin and get the ball from the ground to the top of the overturned bin about 2 feet away.)

June 12, 2011:

Today we made cars that could pass the 2 tests (as shown in the introduction) successfully. When the class was starting, there were several ideas for potential things that could pass the tests (ex. crane and ramp.) The idea that the Lego teacher had in mind was a car that could drive the ball around to pass the test.

It took a little while to build the car on our own. When we were done, we added a brick/axle/Miscellaneous piece to the cars to identify them as ours. I put on a finger (a bent, circular beam) onto the left side of our car. The Lego teacher called us in to a Lego lesson.

He explained about the idea of turning while going straight: put one side in reverse and the other in forward. And he explained about treads on our vehicles.

When the lesson was done, we could go into pairs or not, and I decided to go alone, because everybody already had their cars together.

It took another 10-15 minutes to build my own 2nd car. Later I connected the 2 with a brick plate. Then I made a slanted board with edge-on brick technique. (Put a plate on a ninety-degree angle to the studded brick you put it on and stick it in between two studs.) When I tried the idea on the plate, it didn't work. I was about to redesign it when the camp ended. Ah, well, maybe next time.

Overall, I had a good day at YMCA Lego camp.

Monday, July 11, 2011

LEGO Engineering Challenge Camp at the YMCA

Sam is attending a Lego summer camp at our local YMCA this week. He'll be posting a daily journal of his experience there. Here's the description of this camp from our YMCA 2011 Summer Program Guide:

LEGO Engineering Challenge
Ages: 9-11
We team up with Play-Well TEKnologies to bring you Engineering Challenge with Lego. Build motorized machines, catapults, pyramids, demolition derby cars, truss and suspension bridges, buildings, and other construction projects. Explore concepts in physics, mechanical engineering, structural engineering, and architecture while playing with your favorite creation, including three hours of instruction per day and traditional camp activities such as arts and crafts and games.


Stay tuned for more of Sam's daily journal!

daily blog post for YMCA Lego camp

This is the first post of my day at Lego Challenge camp at the YMCA. I will be posting daily until the end of the week on my Lego camp.

July 11, 2011:

Today we worked on the objective of moving a small-sized practice baseball from the floor to the section on the whiteboard where the markers, erasers, magnets, etc. were kept.

The leader had built his own elevator 'stick' and elevator. He showed us how to build the elevator stick.

Then, when we were done making it, we started making an elevator car (kind of...) The car was slightly jiggly and almost broke our elevator stick. I had made a remote holder, but it was kind of hard to access, so we took off the roof (the elevator car had broken it.)

Now was the task of carrying the ball and dumping it at will, so we got several unsuccessful ideas (cup bricks, Lego boats, etc.)

Finally, we made a cup of multiple bricks (not the same as the other brick cup,) and we built it around the ball.

Now the first task was done, now for the second task: getting the ball to the marker holder.

That's when I came up with the idea of making a mechanical claw. When it was time to show, the claw's motor wasn't on properly, so I modified it to be hand-operated.

When it was showing time, there were a lot of "Oohs" and "Ahs" regarding our elevator.

Overall it was a nice day. I'll post the next day's event later tomorrow.