COVID-19 threatens to cancel or postpone summer manufacturing camps across the U.S., and as a result, a few innovative Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs® (NBT) camp hosts are taking a different approach. They’re providing virtual camps to temporarily replace the traditional hands-on experience and the feedback is positive!

One NBT camp director has given new meaning to distance learning. It took creativity, experience, and a lot of passion for Scott Beebe, the manager of FABLAB Jackson County in Vancleave, Mississippi, to fully run FABLAB’s Virtual STEM Camp for elementary and middle school students.

The FABLAB virtual camps will cover:

• Robotics — VEX VR has an online platform to go through virtual challenges through automation and programming of a Virtual Robot.
• Electronics — Automation with the Arduino offers an online simulation of the Arduino and all of its components. Campers build virtual circuit boards and code them to simulate different tasks.
• Scratch Coding — Video Game Scratch Coding using the same platform used in the face-to-face camps.
• 3D design — Students can use Tinkercad to design 3D models.
• Digital Art — Online tutorials and projects to design digital images.

Summer manufacturing camps are conducted through online resources and teacher instruction. Large group discussions are held in a meeting platform such as Zoom. After initial projects and schedules / agendas are established, breakout rooms are set up for four or five students in each, along with a co-host. The co-hosts are other instructors or high school seniors who serve as mentors and can receive community service volunteer hours. Scott mentions that “the older students are very interested in helping out; it’s a great way for them to log their service hours and they enjoy being able to share their knowledge and answer questions.” Scott is able to move from “room” to “room,” allowing students to share their screens and talk about their projects.

Managing Different Skill Sets in a Virtual Environment
In the breakout rooms, additional projects can be assigned to students who are “high flyers” and extra attention can be given to those who need it. The high achievers can also help by showing others how they reached completion. Discussing the failures, as well as the successes, can be more valuable in the learning process.

Tips to Summer Manufacturing Camp Directors for Virtual Camp Success

FABLAB held two virtual camps in April, each with 10 or more registered participants. Some ideas and best practices that Scott learned along the way are:

• Scheduling — Don’t try to keep students’ attention for more than three-four hours each day; stagger or rotate classes.
• Provide breakout rooms for instruction differentiation — Each day, mix up the student groups in each room.
• Enlist student helpers as room monitors.
• Provide 10-minute “brain breaks” — Get up and move, for example, program robots to do the “Cha Cha Slide”.
• Embrace exploration — Plan short lessons for learning. End each day with a longer lesson for after-hours independent work.
• Expect things to go wrong like computer crashes and website updates. It’s important to remember that everyone is figuring out how to work in this new environment.
• Encourage experimentation — Scott’s advice to students is to just click on it and “try it”. Scott stresses to his camp participants that failure equals opportunity.

According to Scott, everybody has a different experience when learning is not rigid. His message to teachers and other camp hosts is “Make the experience as relaxing as you want your life to be right now. Because it is already stressful enough. Parents and kids are needing engagement now more than ever. If FABLAB does get to occupy our physical buildings again, we would still hold as many face-to-face camps as possible, but we would like to offer this alternative camp model in the meantime.”

As schools figure out the best approach for their camps, the message is clear. Manufacturing will be an essential industry during the economic recovery and the demand for skilled workers will grow. Now, more than ever, students need to be introduced to the crucial career opportunities that manufacturing has to offer.

Learn more about hosting a virtual manufacturing camp, watch the webinar now.

Contact foundation@fmanet.org or 888-394-4362 with questions. Find the latest summer manufacturing camp updates at nbtfoundation.org/camps.