Load-bearing structures, simple machines, catapults, water filters — physical things that either work or fall over.

Do they work alone or in teams?

Both. Solo build first, then a team build where they have to defend a design choice out loud.

Engineering Summer Camp in Chapel Hill, NC

Chapel Hill is one of the cities the Durham–Chapel Hill, NC metro area is officially named after. The case for engineering summer camp here is not that the area lacks camps — it is that most of them end without the child being able to explain what they made.

Ages 7-14 · For families · North Carolina · South

Engineering Summer Camp — Ellis Abel Learns STEM summer camp materials used in Chapel Hill, NC

What the week actually is

Engineering week is constraints week. A bridge that must hold a weight, with a fixed pile of materials and a deadline. Children who have never been told no by a problem before meet one here, and learn that the answer is a redesign, not a tantrum.

Day by day

Constraints and a materials budget
First build, first collapse
Redesign from what failed
Load test to destruction, record the number
Showcase: defend the design choice

Chapel Hill, NC — what applies locally

Chapel Hill is one of the cities the Durham–Chapel Hill, NC metro area is officially named after.
Metro area: Durham–Chapel Hill, NC
State: North Carolina · Region: South

Questions we get from Chapel Hill, NC

What do they build?: Load-bearing structures, simple machines, catapults, water filters — physical things that either work or fall over.
Is it messy?: Yes. That is not incidental.
Do they work alone or in teams?: Both. Solo build first, then a team build where they have to defend a design choice out loud.

Other camp themes in Chapel Hill

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Engineering Camp elsewhere in North Carolina

Concord, NCCity Gastonia, NCCity Cary, NCCity High Point, NCCity Lenoir, NCCity Morganton, NCCity Southern Pines, NCCity Charlotte, NCMetro area

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