Unlocking the Magic of STEM: Harry Potter Summer Camp for Grades K-6, July 15-19
Jul 3, 20242 min read
I had the pleasure to meet with the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Robotics Team “Don’t Blink” at their makerspace at the Princeton STEM Academy, LLC (PSA).
FTC is a robotics competition for students in grades 7–12 to compete head-to-head, by designing, building, and programming a robot to compete in an alliance format against other teams. The competition consists of local and regional qualifiers, the world championship, and the FIRST Championship. In every season, a kickoff is held to showcase the season's theme and game.
After the kickoff, robots are designed, built, and programmed by teams, and teams are encouraged to conduct outreach with their communities. Local qualifiers are held for teams to compete and qualify for regional qualifiers, and from that point, regional qualifiers are held for teams to qualify for the world championship.
Teams, with the guidance of coaches, mentors and volunteers, are required to develop strategy and build robots based on innovative, sound engineering principles. Awards are given for robot performance as well as for community outreach, design, and other real-world accomplishments.
Comprised mostly of students in the WW-P School District, this team has won multiple awards, including:
2022-2023 Powerplay World Winners, Maryland Tech Invitational semi-finalists
2021-2022 Freight Frenzy Division Finalists, New Jersey State Winners, Maryland Tech Invitational semi-finalists
2020-2021 Ultimate Goal State Finalists
Don’t Blink operates in collaboration with the Hack Club, a global nonprofit network of high school computer hackers, makers and coders. Founded in 2014, the Hack Club now includes more than 400 high school clubs and 23,000 students.
This summer, the Don’t Blink team is offering a summer program for the week of July 15th-19th titled “Harry Potter STEM Summer Camp”. The program is geared towards students in grades K – 6th and will be held at the Princeton Stem Academy’s makerspace in Plainsboro, NJ.
Spend a semester at Hogwarts while learning about circuit-powered wands, potions with shifting states of matter, and how to grow a Mandrake based on scientific principles! Sign up today for a magical time and we'll see you in Charms class!
The cost of the program is $250 per student. Sibling discounts are available. For more information, contact Dr. Kathryn Rogers at email@example.com, or 847-736-7474, or follow this link to register for this class, as well as several other classes held at the PSA this summer.