NICC Waukon Center's Robotic Olympics Summer Camp a success

The Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) Waukon Center’s first-ever science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)-themed summer camp, “Robotic Olympics: Leap into the Future”, enjoyed great success and participation from the community.
The camp, which was held June 8-10, provided 37 students in fourth through sixth grades an opportunity to learn about STEM while working with and completing robotics projects. As part of the camp’s activities, the students visited the Lely robotics milking system at Iowa’s Dairy Center (pictured below), located just south of the NICC Calmar campus, and presented their projects (pictured at right) in a final graduation day for parents, community members and partners.
“Robots for the camp were provided free of charge by Keystone AEA, and during the week, students broke up into groups of four to five members and each selected one of the robots to be a ‘champion’ of,” Erica Nosbisch, NICC Waukon Center Director, explained. “The students learned in-depth how to use the robots and program them, then used their creativity to build obstacle courses and ramps with glue, construction paper and cardboard with their teams. The obstacle course demonstration on the last day gave students an opportunity to showcase their work and was the Olympics-themed component of the camp.”
The Keystone AEA robots each have an identity and a futuristic name to supply extra interest, such as Recon Rover, Pro-Bot, Scribbler 2, Boe-Bot, EV3, Dash and Dot, MiP, Sphero, Ollie, Rolling Spider Drone and Ozobot. Sixty people attended the June 10 presentation day and each group developed a one- to two-minute video that featured pictures and reflections on what they learned. The STEM and robotics focus of the camp is a natural fit for young students, who already possess a high degree of technological-savvy and interest, Nosbisch added.
“The kids were so excited at our first Robotic Olympics: Leap into the Future camp and didn’t realize how much they were learning. Everything was so hands-on, engaging and fun. As they were designing and building the obstacle courses, they were learning engineering concepts and having fun in the process,” she said. Camp partners included NICC, Allamakee Community Connections, Iowa State University Extension & Outreach, Allamakee County Economic Development & Tourism, Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA), Keystone AEA and Northeast Iowa Business Network (NIBN). Other organizations who provided financial or in-kind donation support included Epic Wear, Allamakee County Farm Bureau, Norplex Micarta and Farmers and Merchants Savings Bank. Submitted photo.