STEM & DESIGN SUNDAY | Grades 3+ | FREE

Here is the lineup of topics for our FREE STEM & Design workshop on January 23. Please note the grade level and location for each topic. Space is limited for each topic and Registration is required!

Tinkercad , grades 3-8 or by permission, limit 4, Our office – 46 Bridge Street

CAD Fusion 360 , grades 6-12 or by permission, limit 4, Our office – 46 Bridge Street

Engineering Design Challenges , grades 3-8 or by permission, limit 5. NOTE: time for this topic is 2:00-3:30 pm. The Maxx – 94 Railroad Street

Game design with Scratch: Intermediate (this is not for beginners), grades 3-8, limit 4, The Maxx – 94 Railroad Street

Game design with Unity: Intermediate (this is not for beginners), grades 8-12 or by permission, limit 4, The Maxx – 94 Railroad Street

 

REGISTER NOW

Date

Jan 23 2022
Expired!

Time

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Location

Robotics And Beyond Office
46 Bridge Street, New Milford, CT 06776

Location 2

The Maxx
94 Railroad St, New Milford, CT 06776

We are here to help your kids discover their talents and start applying STEM principles and problem solving in everyday life. This is your chance to help us raise another generation of independent thinkers. DONATE TODAY to help us maintain our classes, provide necessary training to our young mentors, and ensure access to all. Together we help keep this community educated and help our children build a better future for everyone.

 

Tinkercad - Introduction to 3D modeling and 3D printing

 

Grades 3-12 or by permission. 1-day workshops, or 1 to 2 hour sessions in multi-day classes and week long summer camps. In-person or Online.

Tinkercad is a great way for students interested in 3D modeling and design to get a feel for what working in a 3D environment is like! Tinkercad is a free, introductory educational software created by engineering software company Autodesk. Tinkercad runs in your browser so it requires no software download and allows you to create an account and save your projects. Students will learn how to create, dimension, combine, and customize pre-generated and custom drawn geometric shapes to create basic models, parts, and inventions. Tinkercad has many other fun uses like electronics and “brick building.” Tinkercad is also the perfect start for moving up to Autodesk Fusion 360, which is our choice for teaching higher levels of 3D modeling, product design, mechanical design and making prototypes. Each student can choose one suitable model to be printed by Robotics And Beyond and picked up in New Milford or mailed to the home.

 

Requirements:

 

- Computer access (Windows, Mac, or Chromebook all work!)
- Access to Google Chrome (other browsers may work but Chrome is what we base our classes on, so certain aspects may differ on Safari, Firefox, Edge, etc.)
- An Autodesk Tinkercad account (a tutorial for making the account will be sent to parents before classes begin)

 

Learn more about Tinkercad

Tinkercad Wikipedia

Autodesk Fusion 360: Introduction and basic skills

 

Grades 7-12 or by permission. Summer camps, 1 to 2 hour, multi-day classes, and 1-day workshops. Inquire about online options.

Students will learn the basic functions of Fusion 360 to create sketches, geometries, and 3d shapes and original designs, and learn how their models are fabricated through 3D printing. Fusion 360 is Autodesk’s flagship mechanical design software, with design, machining, rendering, and blueprinting software all in one, cloud enabled package. Fusion 360 offers a free 3-year license to students and is our best recommendation for exploring and growing career skills in 3D modeling.

 

We hope to allow each student to choose one model to be printed by Robotics And Beyond and picked up in New Milford or mailed to the home. This is not certain and will depend on the availability of our 3D printer for the camp or class.

 

Learn more about Autodesk Fusion 360

 

Requirements:

 

- Experience with Robotics And Beyond class using Tinkercad or experience with any 3D modeling software such as Sketchup, Blender or Solidworks. Tinkercad will allow the easiest transition to Fusion 360.

 

Optional but highly recommended for use of Fusion 360 at home:

 

- An Autodesk Fusion 360 account: (We will send you a tutorial on how to get an account with autodesk)

- A suitable computer: Computers will be provided for in-person classes but students may bring their own laptop. We encourage students to continue work with the software at home after the camp. Either a PC or MAC with at least 4GB RAM is needed, or preferably 8GB. Chromebooks will not work with Fusion 360. A dedicated graphics card is not necessary. If your computer runs any application or game with graphics like Minecraft, Blender or Sketchup then it should work well with Fusion 360. Computers purchased after 2014 will generally be fine.

- An installation of Fusion 360: We will send a tutorial on installing Fusion 360, which is free for students and hobbyists alike. You will get a free three year license allowing your student to continue using Fusion beyond our classroom.

- Internet Access: Fusion 360 does not rely on a browser but it needs online access to Autodesk’s cloud resources.

 

Engineering and Design Challenges

 

Grades 3-6. Offered as 1 to 1.5 hour sessions in week long summer camps or after school and weekend workshops. In-person only.

Using basic materials or LEGOs, students will be given a variety of challenges and then design and build solutions for them. The challenges may be structural, functional or simply artistic, but the focus will be on coming up with original ideas, discovery and aesthetics, as well as solving the problem given by the challenge. Working alone, in pairs or as a group, students will be encouraged to let their curiosity and imagination lead them to create innovative designs for each challenge.

 

Programming in Scratch: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced

 

Grades 3-9. 1-day workshops, or 1 to 2 hour sessions in multi-day classes and week long summer camps. In-person or Online.

Our "Programming in Scratch" topic serves students who want to begin learning to code and also those wanting to learn fundamentals of game development and animation for games.

 

Beginners (Level 1): No keyboard skills necessary! Scratch is a “drag and drop” programming language developed at MIT. It is free and easy to use with no risk to a home computer as it is done completely online. Scratch is excellent for learning all of the fundamental concepts of programming in any language and suitable for very young as well as older students. Scratch can be used to create very complex programs for games and simulations in many subjects like physics, math, computers, and engineering. Students will learn how to begin and save projects, and create simple programs and games like Maze and Pong. Students will learn how to find interesting projects online, see the actual code, and use and change the code to create their own games or animations.

 

Intermediate and advanced (Level 2): Either as separate workshops or following a beginner-level workshop in Scratch, instructors will share their latest projects and examples from others that use high-level tools and skills. Students may also share their projects and get help as needed as they learn more skills and fundamentals of coding while creating more difficult games and animations. Advanced techniques include gravity, momentum and switches, and custom special effect engines. Advanced coding skills and concepts to be learned include lists, variables, operators, procedures, conditionals, and loops, and learning to debug problems in code.

 

Students must create a Scratch account at home before the class or provide an email address that can be used to create an account during the first class.

 

Learn more about Scratch

Game Development with Unity

 

Grades 7-12 or by permission. Summer camps, 1 to 2 hour, multi-day classes, and 1-day workshops. Inquire about online options.

This topic provides a good introduction to Unity and its use for game development and the application of the programming language C# to a specific project. New students will learn fundamentals of the software platform tools and libraries and each build their own level of one group game. Experienced students will work on their own complete game. Students will download the Unity development software to take part in this class.

 

This class will not teach coding fundamentals (see “Requirements” below).

 

The benefit of Unity: Unity is a development platform for creating graphics and animation in 2D, 3D, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). It has very wide use in industry for creating video games, films and animation for many applications. Because working in Unity involves the use of code libraries written in the language C#, it also provides a great learning path to higher levels of coding in general. Unity has a very large user base and is well supported with tutorials and forums that provide great sources of information and help.

 

Requirements:

 

- A personal interest in game design and learning about an industrial-strength game development platform.

- The class is focused on learning to use the software platform Unity and applying C# to the subject of game development. The class does not have time to teach coding fundamentals. Therefore a high comfort level with at least one programming language is necessary to be allowed to join the class. C# is ideal, Java and any other C-based language are the next most relevant languages.  Strong ability in Python or Java Script is also acceptable.

 

Optional but highly recommended:

 

- Installation of the free Unity development software on a laptop or desktop computer from your home. Our staff can help with installation during the classes.

- Creation of a personal Unity account to allow projects and learning to continue at home. The accounts are free and we will provide guidance on the account setup.

- Creation of a GitHub account to allow collaboration with other students and our instructors, and access to code from many other designers. The accounts are free and we will provide guidance on the account setup.

 

Learn more about Unity

Introduction to Robotics using LEGO NXT or LEGO EV3

 

Grades 3-6 & 7-12. 1-day workshops, or multi-day classes and week long summer camp, 2 hours/class. In-person only.

Build a robot and learn fundamentals of programming and robotics engineering with LEGO’s programmable NXT or EV3 robotics system of controller, motors, sensors and Mindstorms software. The use of NXT or EV3 system will depend on the student’s age and experience. Students will work in pairs but exceptions may be allowed to work alone. Once students accomplish required tasks and simpler challenges, they can choose from higher level challenges or build a more complex robot of their own design or one provided by the instructors. Depending on availability, students may also be able to use robots to solve FIRST LEGO League competition missions. The final class will include optional robot battles within a 4 foot arena ring where students test mechanical design and programming strategies against each other.

 

Learn about LEGO Mindstorms

Learn more about EV3 and NXT