📐
3D-Design a Super-Strong Hook
9:00–9:30
You used real engineering software to design a hook — then we hung weights on it until it snapped.
Using Onshape (the same kind of 3D-design tool real engineers use), everyone started from the same box with the same two ends, so the contest was fair. Your job: design the middle. The trick? A straight bar is weak where the printer layers glue together, so you had to make a curved or angled shape that bends instead of cracks. We printed them overnight and tested them on Day 2.
3D / CAD designEngineeringForces & materials
🤓 Fun fact
A 3D print is made of stacked layers, like a tower of pancakes. It's strong when you push on the layers, but weaker when you try to peel them apart — so smart shapes turn peeling into pushing.
💬 Ask your camper
"Why was a straight hook a bad idea? Whose design held the most weight, and what shape did they use?"
🏠 Try it at home
Design your own keychain or name tag for free in Tinkercad — it runs in any browser, no app needed.
🎨
Pimp Your micro:bit
9:30–10:00
You designed a custom snap-on badge that clips onto your micro:bit's case — no two were the same.
A micro:bit is a tiny pocket computer we code all week. To make yours yours, you made a little name or icon badge in an online MakerLab tool and printed it in color. It snaps onto the front of the case without covering the LED screen.
3D printingDesignPersonalization
🤓 Fun fact
The micro:bit was created in the UK so that millions of kids could learn to code — they gave one to every Year-7 student in Britain.
💬 Ask your camper
"What did you put on your badge, and why? Where does it clip on?"
🏠 Try it at home
Make a custom keytag, lithophane, or nametag in MakerWorld MakerLab (free designs you can print at a library makerspace).
🥚
Egg-Drop Crash Test
10:00–11:00
The egg sits on the ground — you build a shield over it, then we drop weights on top. Protect the egg!
The challenge: an egg sits on the table and you build a protective shield around and over it from camp materials, then we drop weights on it — a wooden dowel, a rock, a 2×4, even a cinder block. Anchor your shield to the table and brace it with triangles so the structure — not the egg — takes the hit. A strong shield holds the weight up; a springy one bounces it away; a weak one collapses and… splat.
Physics: forcesEnergy & impactIteration
🤓 Fun fact
A shield protects best when it spreads the hit out — over more time (crumple & cushion) or sideways into the ground (a braced, anchored frame). It's the same reason buildings use triangle braces and cars have crumple zones.
💬 Ask your camper
"Did your egg survive? Did your shield hold the weight, squish it, or bounce it off? What would you change next time?"
🏠 Try it at home
Set an egg on the patio, build a shield over it from craft sticks & tape, and — with a grown-up — drop a small water bottle on it from up high. Try the mini-game below first to plan your design!
🎮
Mini-game: Egg-Drop Lab
Play
Real physics! The egg's on the ground — draw a shield over it from straws, popsicle sticks, rubber bands & cotton, anchor it to the dirt, then a weight drops on top. Hold it, cushion it, or bounce it off — just don't let it reach the egg!
🤖
Meet the Robot Cars
11:00–12:00
You paired a wireless remote to a robot car and figured out how to make it go.
Our robot cars are driven by a micro:bit. You programmed the buttons on a second micro:bit to send radio messages to the car — press a button, the car moves. The big puzzle was making sure your remote drove your car and not your neighbor's (each team picked its own radio channel).
Block codingRoboticsWireless / radio
🤓 Fun fact
The remote and the car talk using radio waves — the same invisible signals as Wi-Fi and walkie-talkies. A "channel number" is like a secret handshake so only your two micro:bits chat.
💬 Ask your camper
"How did you stop your remote from driving someone else's car? What did each button do?"
🏠 Try it at home
You don't need the robot to keep coding — open Bit Quest, our micro:bit coding game, and program a simulated micro:bit in your browser.
Next: Day 2 — Maker & micro:bit Day →