All the counties met at the Robeson County Extension office today to have some fun learning. We started the day with some team building and listening exercises to set the stage for what was coming up. After a brief snack break we broke into five groups to start a rotation at nine different stations. Each group had youth from each of the three counties, of different ages, and different science backgrounds. Before the day was over everyone was able to determine each others strengths and found a way to use them during the day.
The first station was a robot arm. There each team member got a chance to operate the arm and move dice and place them in a cup as well as stack (and destack which might have been more fun) cups into a pyramid. With five different motors the youth had to learn about how to move and pivot the arm to accomplish their task which they said sounded easier then it was, but they had fun practicing.
The second station was as challenging as the youth had to read a blue print and snap connectors together to make a remote control (RC) car. The first group on the car assembled the remote and started to figure out how to snap pieces into place while the second team had the opportunity to work it out and make it run. Blythe end of the day everyone had a chance to make to run, put it together and learn about the circuitry behind it.
The third station made the mind work hard. The trivia station had the youth creating questions about the different things they had earned during the week. Everything from why do orphan elephants need to wear sunscreen (since they don't have mothers to hide under their ears are susceptible to burning) to what created the Carolina Bays (possible meteor shower). 
Next it was time to take a turn at creating the doodle bot. When completely put together it would create designs by vibrating and moving in a circular pattern thanks to the pens on its exterior. Every group worked to put it together and ten last group to work with it was determined and even spent extra trek getting it put together and working.
Station number five had an environmental theme going on. The youth worked to turn a normal empty soda can into a robot. When done it walked on its own. It even had its own personality with straw arms and google eyes that bounced as it moved across the table.
After all of the electronics it was time to explore alternative energies that might be used to power some of our creations. First up our groups created a solar oven which had two possible experiments to try. One was to use two bottles and create a solar water heater. The second one had to do with melting chocolate. Something that everyone offered to clean up after.
With so many heady projects going on project number seven wasn' t really a project but it was very hands, and feet, on. Our youth got a chance to kick off their shoes and play Twister. Something that several had not seen until they played today and or acted moving their hands and feet to the commands of the spinner board. There was groaning, stretching, falling, and laughter which even included a volunteer and or staff member.
After getting the wiggles and giggles out it was time to tell time. An old fashioned potato clock gave everyone a chance to hypothesize and create a fun scenario. Using a potato they were able to make the clock work. What about with Coke, orange juice, sprite, or any combination of the above power sources? Hmmm you would have to aka our scientists, but I can disclosed they had fun and stay on time with the rotation of stations.
Up last was a really fun project, using different things to filter and clean water. The groups created an entire system that included gravel, sand, charcoal, and a coffee filter to turn mud into water. It might not have been the fastest system, but being that it only used gravity as a power source it was pretty awesome.
Somewhere with all of the activity we stopped for a pizza lunch and had a very special desert. With three Birthdays among our Biotech campers this week and celebrating our fifth anniversary of the program, we had a ginormous homemade birthday cake for dessert. William, whose birthday it was was gracious enough to cut our official cake as we all partook in some. After lunch we finished rotating through our nine activities.
When we were done we stayed in our groups to answer our trivia questions. It was a close call on which team won so we settled in to complete our camp evaluations and sign thank you cards for all those that hosted us and spent time with us this week. With all that hard work behind us it was time to celebrate once more with the opportunity to make our own ice cream sundaes. A that was going on our own theater was created so we could watch a slide show featuring our smiling faces from our week of adventures.
At the conclusion of our day it was time to head to our respective counties and go home. We said goodbye to all our new friends and asked our 4-H Agents if we could do it again next year. W also gave a very special thank you to Megan Hurst and Rachel Maynor for helping us out today. They rocked. Until we meet again they said they would take good care of our robotics until we can find a need to experiment with them again.
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