Engineering Design Summer Camp

A Camp Devoted to Enjoying the Engineering Design Process

Background Information (What is the engineering design process?)

The Design (EPICS) Division at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) operates the Summer Camp Challenge for high school (rising 10th-12^th grade) students. Participants work in teams to design and build an engineering device to meet a set of performance specifications. The team markets the device to a general audience (the parents) through a poster session and competition. This exciting adventure creates an opportunity to practice engineering design, i.e. the design and construction of a device, system, or process.

The Design (EPICS) sequence was founded on an industrial approach to engineering design highlighting projects solicited from industry, government and community. We have developed a curriculum based on technical, team, and communications processes characteristic of conceptual stages associated with the engineering life cycle. Our first-year college students have created conceptual designs for playground equipment for children with disabilities, mining vehicles for space (Mars) exploration, and noise abatement walls for our highways. These designs have continued into the second, third, and fourth years as a team gains the technical skills to refine its designs. As students prepare quality solutions to their projects, they also explore team skills to foster satisfaction within the team. This project-based curriculum offers an innovative approach to engineering design education.

Goals and Objectives

The mission of the camp is to offer high school students an opportunity to participate in a creative challenge as they explore the world of engineering. The goal of the camp is to guide participants through a fun and rewarding hands-on experience of authentic engineering design practices. The expected outcomes of this program address the fundamentals of the engineering design process.

Ø Challenges of designing and marketing a product

Ø Early exposure to engineering design processes

Ø Opportunities to apply basic mathematic and science concepts

Ø Importance of team and communications skills

Ø Challenges to step beyond the comfort zone

Schedule and Activities

A team spends the first two days brainstorming ideas, defining specifications and selecting its best design. The team creates sketches (portfolio) and describes its designs (project plan). Once the design is approved, the team builds the apparatus from its drawings and specifications. On Friday it assesses the performance of its design.

For the summer of 2008, we plan to offer two sessions of the Camp Challenge. The first session, the Sky Hook Crane, challenges teams to construct a device to lift a wheel chair from the lower deck of a ship. The session runs from July 21 to 25 for the first 25 students who apply. The second session, August 4-8 is tentative. It will be run only with a minimum of 18 students signed up AFTER the July camp fills with 25 students. The challenge for session two, the Fuel Cell Vehicle, promotes alternate energy for fueling dragsters and stock cars.