This camp is for any level of LEGO Roboteer! So if you are a rookie or a veteran this camp can take you and help move your skills forward. We start off with some basics since even the veterans have often forgotten a lot since last year, and of course some beginners are more advanced. Our camp staff try as quickly as possible to figure out which you are. Usually one staff member will be working primarily with the beginners and one primarily with the advanced, with the third floating as needed.

Open to ages 9 to 12, no experience needed. 

2022 ALL CAMPS ARE BEING PLANNED FOR IN-PERSON.

IF REQUIRED DUE TO STATE OF THE PANDEMIC, THE CAMPS WILL BE ONLINE OR HYBRID THIS SUMMER. If conditions require online or hybrid operations, all camper families will have the opportunity to cancel for a full refund. If camps are offered in person, then normal cancellation policy remains in effect.

Click here for the Camp FAQs Page

Click here for the Camp Policy and Form Page

Did you ever wonder how people made all those cool 3D objects? Whether board game pieces or parts of a machine, these parts start as an idea in your imagination, then turned into a 3D object on a computer, and finally are printed on a 3D printer.   At the 3D Design and Printing Camp you’ll do all of these things AND build and take home your own 3D printer! Learn the basics of 3D design using SketchUp or TinkerCAD; save your designs and then export them to the 3D printer.

For 2022 we're looking at either the Ender 3 Pro with the auto leveling kit or the Ender 3 Pro V2, but it's too early to see which one will in budget come the spring and which one will be available. Maybe we'll get lucky and be able to do the Ender 3 Pro V2 AND the auto leveler.

Learn about calibrating the machines; starting and finishing the print; fixing errors; and all the details that make 3D printing both challenging and rewarding.  At the end of the week you get to take home your new printer, all the cool things you’ve created, even some 3D filament to use!

Open to ages 12 to 16.

2022 ALL CAMPS ARE BEING PLANNED FOR IN-PERSON.

IF REQUIRED DUE TO STATE OF THE PANDEMIC, THE CAMPS WILL BE ONLINE OR HYBRID THIS SUMMER. If conditions require online or hybrid operations, all camper families will have the opportunity to cancel for a full refund. If camps are offered in person, then normal cancellation policy remains in effect.

Click here to see the FAQ Page

Click here to see the Policies and Forms Page

This camp is for any level of LEGO Roboteer! So if you are a rookie or a veteran this camp can take you and help move your skills forward. We start off with some basics since even the veterans have often forgotten a lot since last year, and of course some beginners are more advanced. Our camp staff try as quickly as possible to figure out which you are. Usually one staff member will be working primarily with the beginners and one primarily with the advanced, with the third floating as needed.

Open to ages 9 to 12, no experience needed. 

2022 ALL CAMPS ARE BEING PLANNED FOR IN-PERSON.

IF REQUIRED DUE TO STATE OF THE PANDEMIC, THE CAMPS WILL BE ONLINE OR HYBRID THIS SUMMER. If conditions require online or hybrid operations, all camper families will have the opportunity to cancel for a full refund. If camps are offered in person, then normal cancellation policy remains in effect.

Click here for the Camp FAQs Page

Click here for the Camp Policy and Form Page

Do you like to think about language?

• Where it comes from
• What your brain is doing when you use language
• How many languages there are
• How computers understand language
• Whether animals use language

In the Playing with Language camp, we’ll do some activities and experiments about language, including these:

• Campers will work with some of the tools that linguists use to learn about language:
  • A computer application that makes images of speech (spectrograms), where you can ‘see’ what speech looks like
  • An eye-tracker, which follows the movements of people’s eyes while they look at pictures and listen to language
• Campers will make up their own languages, like Klingon in ‘Star Trek’
• Campers will play games with Siri and Google Translate and other language apps
• Campers will practice learning another language using Duolingo
• We will visit Smiling Hill Farm to observe animal communication
• We will go on a language scavenger hunt in Portland 

Language is at the center of human society and is one of the most amazing feats of the human brain. But we use language so naturally that we almost never think about it. This camp is an excellent opportunity for the youth to learn about language and to get a basic introduction to the science of linguistics.

1 field trip to Smiling Hill Farm to see animal communication

and 1 field trip to downtown Portland for the language scavenger hunt

Open to ages 9 to 12

Minimum number of campers: 8

Maximum number of campers: 12

2022 ALL CAMPS ARE BEING PLANNED FOR IN-PERSON.

IF REQUIRED DUE TO STATE OF THE PANDEMIC, THE CAMPS WILL BE ONLINE OR HYBRID THIS SUMMER. If conditions require online or hybrid operations, all camper families will have the opportunity to cancel for a full refund. If camps are offered in person, then normal cancellation policy remains in effect.

Click here for Camp FAQ Page

Click here for Camp Policy and Forms Page

Did you ever wonder how people made all those cool 3D objects? Whether board game pieces or parts of a machine, these parts start as an idea in your imagination, then turned into a 3D object on a computer, and finally are printed on a 3D printer.   At the 3D Design and Printing Camp you’ll do all of these things AND build and take home your own 3D printer! Learn the basics of 3D design using SketchUp or TinkerCAD; save your designs and then export them to the 3D printer.

For 2022 we're looking at either the Ender 3 Pro with the auto leveling kit or the Ender 3 Pro V2, but it's too early to see which one will in budget come the spring and which one will be available. Maybe we'll get lucky and be able to do the Ender 3 Pro V2 AND the auto leveler.

Learn about calibrating the machines; starting and finishing the print; fixing errors; and all the details that make 3D printing both challenging and rewarding.  At the end of the week you get to take home your new printer, all the cool things you’ve created, even some 3D filament to use!

Open to ages 12 to 16.

2022 ALL CAMPS ARE BEING PLANNED FOR IN-PERSON.

IF REQUIRED DUE TO STATE OF THE PANDEMIC, THE CAMPS WILL BE ONLINE OR HYBRID THIS SUMMER. If conditions require online or hybrid operations, all camper families will have the opportunity to cancel for a full refund. If camps are offered in person, then normal cancellation policy remains in effect.

Click here to see the Camp FAQs Page

Click here to see the Policies and Forms Page

Campers will use programmable sensor packages and 3D printed cases to build their own CubeSat modules. CubeSats are designed to be nanosatellites and while ours won't be going into space, they are very similar in design as the 1200 CubeSats that have gone into space so far. 

Each CubeSat is 10cm x 10cm x 10cm and contains a sensor pack, a controller, a power supply, and a data storage unit. Each camper will be able to design a sensor mission for their CubeSat and we will be bench testing them and then at the end of the week, weather allowing, the campers will go to a nearby airfield and their CubeSats will be taken up to a high altitude (14,000 feet) and the CubeSats will collect data that the students will then be able to analyze when the CubeSats are returned to Earth.

Campers will be able to keep their CubeSats at the end of the camp and the programming language is free so they will be able to continue using it and reprogramming it on their own.

This program will be running on the Portland campus of USM. 

If weather is bad during the camp week, a rescheduled launch will be performed and campers will be able to come out to the launch field and do the launch at that time, unfortunately transportation may not be available on rain dates.

Ages: 13-17
Campers will need to bring their own lunch, but snacks are provided.

This camp includes a field trip, weather permitting, to the Skydive New England Airport in Lebanon, Maine.

2022 ALL CAMPS ARE BEING PLANNED FOR IN-PERSON WITH THE OPTION OF ONLINE ATTENDANCE. IF REQUIRED DUE TO STATE OF THE PANDEMIC, THE CAMP WILL BE ONLINE THIS SUMMER.

Click here to see the 2022 Camp FAQ

Click here to see the 2022 Camp Policy and Form Pages

This camp is for any level of LEGO Roboteer! So if you are a rookie or a veteran this camp can take you and help move your skills forward. We start off with some basics since even the veterans have often forgotten a lot since last year, and of course some beginners are more advanced. Our camp staff try as quickly as possible to figure out which you are. Usually one staff member will be working primarily with the beginners and one primarily with the advanced, with the third floating as needed.

Open to ages 9 to 12, no experience needed. 

2022 ALL CAMPS ARE BEING PLANNED FOR IN-PERSON.

IF REQUIRED DUE TO STATE OF THE PANDEMIC, THE CAMPS WILL BE ONLINE OR HYBRID THIS SUMMER. If conditions require online or hybrid operations, all camper families will have the opportunity to cancel for a full refund. If camps are offered in person, then normal cancellation policy remains in effect.

Click here for the Camp FAQs Page

Click here for the Camp Policy and Form Page

2022 NOTE: Computers, electronics, and computer parts have all been hit hard by the global supply chain issues. What this means is that costs continue to rise far faster than the rest of the economy and this is coupled with companies not releasing their older computers (for the used market) as they wait for new computer costs to drop. This means that we simply can't offer the rock-bottom costs that we have had in the past. But it is forcing us to build a better computer, so a mix of good and bad.

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Have you ever wondered what all the parts of a desktop computer do? How a computer is put together, configured, and setup to run? This camp is for youth who want to build and test their own computer. We will be posting the specs of the computer by the end of May. We will be checking with prices early in spring to maximize performance for your build (within our budget). ​ Each camper will use surplus and new parts that will be provided in order to build a fully functional personal computer.

Included in the computer will be: Case and power supply (min 500 watt); motherboard and CPU; CPU fan; 8 GB of DDR4 RAM; keyboard and mouse; WiFi adapter; monitor; solid state drive; a licensed copy of  Windows 10 home 64 bit operating system. These will be very solid desktop or mini-tower computers. If you are looking for a great gaming computer, these probably aren't them... but you'll learn what you can do to upgrade these or build a new one to meet your needs. Remember a really good gaming computer can cost over $2,000+, so don't expect to get one at our camp. BUT, it will play most games at a reasonable frame rate and at a reasonable resolution, so don't despair. This program is an excellent opportunity for the youth to learn about computer architecture and to understand how all the different parts of a computer fit together, both physically and electronically. Each camper will get to take the computer home when they are finished!

Open to ages 12 to 16.

Click here for Camp FAQ Page

Click here for Camp Policy and Form Page