More than 40 area middle-schoolers got the chance to learn from working engineers when Fleet Readiness Center East supported the Eastern North Carolina Summer Middle School Engineering Camp June 24-28. The camp, hosted at Craven Community College’s Havelock Campus, challenged rising seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders with tasks including building a robotic arm, engineering a crash-safe car, and using human-centered design to help one engineer with an everyday task.

During the week-long day camp, two engineers worked with the students each day, and 10 more stopped by to help students improve the prototypes they had engineered as part of their chosen projects. The depot’s mobile fabrication lab – the FabLab – stayed up and running throughout the camp in order to allow students to use computer-aided design software and even 3-D printers to produce their designs.

“FRC East is a vital partner in the camp,” said Bill Fortney, NCSU’s Eastern North Carolina regional director of engineering and the camp’s director. “They make the camp possible by providing technical support, and allow campers to interact with and talk to local engineers. Many studies show that middle school is when students often decide their career path. Engineering is a career that is often very ambiguous for students, so the personal interaction with engineers at camp can have a significant impact.”

Having access to technology powered by the FabLab is exciting, but the campers see the greatest benefits from using their hands to build their projects and exercising their creativity, said Randall Lewis, the FabLab/Innovation Lab lead with FRCE’s Advanced Technology Integrated Product Team. This hands-on learning makes the camp unique.

“A vast majority of the construction process takes place using basic materials such as popsicle sticks, glue and string. The use of these simple materials is extremely important,” he explained, noting that the campers used these elements to build everything from crash-proof cars to a power-generating windmill. “These are items that most students can access readily at home or at school and are extremely cheap to obtain. By teaching young students how to use items they have at their disposal to build the things they see with their imagination, we are further developing their creativity and ingenuity as they grow and become adults.”

This year, another feature helped the camp stand out from other learning experiences: an opportunity to work with human-centered design. NCSU is integrating the approach into its local four-year engineering program, and Fortney thought it would be interesting to acquaint the students with the concept. To do this, Fortney enlisted Bryan Nobles, a mechanical engineer at FRCE, to serve as the inspiration for one of the students’ projects.

“Bryan came to camp for a morning last year and talked with the campers about engineering,” Fortney explained. “It went so well, I thought it would be good to utilize Bryan and introduce the middle-school campers with human-centered design.”

Nobles, a graduate of NCSU, suffered injuries in high school that left him wheelchair bound and with limited use of his hands; because of this, he has difficulty disconnecting the straps of his daughter’s car safety seat. Fortney presented this as a challenge to the campers: Design a tool that will help Nobles release the safety seat harness without assistance from another individual.

Nobles was happy to return to the camp, he said, and spend the whole week with students as part of their project.

“After I was asked by Dr. Fortney … to help in last year’s summer camp for a day, I realized the importance of contributing to your community, passing on knowledge to younger people, and possibly helping them find their own interests in STEM-related topics,” he said. “I’d like to think that working with these kids and them knowing my past – where I came from and where I am now – would give them the inspiration and courage to go out there and do something. To work hard no matter the obstacles, because they’re doing what they love.”

While the week-long camp didn’t offer enough time for the student to completely solve the problem presented, the effort the students put into their projects inspired Nobles.

“It was great to see they actually cared about the project they were doing,” he said. “All the students had great ideas, and they were all different. By the end of the week, some had working prototypes, and most of them worked. Given that they had a couple hours a day for just a week, it was impressive.”

Helping the campers work through the creative process was exciting for the seasoned engineers, as well.

“I like to see things from (the students’) imagination and perspective,” Nobles said. “To watch them develop an understanding and learn about STEM is a joy.”

For Lewis, seeing the campers work to tackle their projects in their own ways is the most enjoyable aspect of supporting the program.

“My favorite part of the camp is getting to experience the creativity that each of the students demonstrates as they build and refine each of their projects,” he added. “Watching their own individual takes on the creative process is fascinating.”

Fortney said his goal for the camp is to provide students a fun and positive look at various engineering fields, while enjoying hands-on investigations and real-world building activities. 

“I want each camper to realize that they can do far more than they ever imagined. Many campers have never design or built anything, and often they feel like they cannot,” he explained. “The activities are designed so everyone can be successful with them – this builds confidence – but the advanced camper will find endless challenges to improve performance. Seeing the camper's face light up when they have their first success is always a highlight.”