DIY Robotics & Electronics Camp Waterville4
Description
Come to this camp to learn about electronics, robotics, microcontrollers, soldering, programming and much more. Not only will you gain a ton of hands-on experience using Arduino microcontrollers, using electrical components, and assembling 3D printed chassis, you also get to take home several DIY projects!
This camp starts with an introduction to everything Arduino - from navigating the board to using the programming software (Arduino IDE). Campers use this knowledge to build simple programs, such as controlling LEDs, switches, and interacting with sensors/OLED displays.
Campers will then build on that knowledge to learn all about electrical components - what is a resistor, a diode, a capacitor? On top of that, this session will also introduce campers to soldering - how to solder wires, PCBs, and how to solder safely.
Campers will build several projects over the course of the week, learning about robotics components such as motors/servos, programming, Arduino shields, and many other topics. This culminates in assembling and testing out multiple robotics projects that campers will get to take home & experiment with further, armed with all of the knowledge & confidence they gained over the course of the week.
This camp is for ages 12-16, no experience required.
Camp pricing:
This camp is run in partnership with Mid-Maine Technical Center. The typical equipment cost for these camps has been graciously covered, allowing us to offer this camp at it's base cost ($450), as opposed to the typical camp cost ($630).
The University of Southern Maine is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization, and we do everything in our power to keep our camps affordable for Maine families. At the same time we make an effort to staff with the best mentors for our campers, we do this by employing classroom educators, university faculty/staff, industry experts, and college undergraduate & graduate students.
With that being said, our biggest expense each year is our camp staff wages. As the cost of living, and the cost of wages increase, it directly impacts the cost to run our camps. Please keep this in mind as you’re browsing our selection of camps, and understand that we do everything we can to keep our camps affordable.
Possible Effects from 2025 Tariffs:
Please note that it is projected that there will be new tariffs going into effect starting early in 2025 that may directly impact some of our most critical camp equipment. This may impact any camp that has take-home electronics equipment (such as “3D Printing & Design”, “Build Your Own Computer Camp”, and “CubeSat Camp”), the cost of the materials may increase as much as 35%. At the moment “we don’t know” means “we don’t know” with regards to how this will impact the cost to run the program.
We are working to mitigate that by ordering this equipment early, but we are preparing for the cost of 3D printers, computer hardware, and any other electronics equipment to increase significantly. If this ends up happening, we will work with families directly to find the best solution in this scenario, but it may result in an add-on cost to camper families.