Carleton students share their enthusiasm for engineering and design through Virtual Ventures, an engineering and technology summer camp for youth grades 1 through 10. Carleton students design and implement lessons on topics as diverse as game design, robotics using LEGO and 3D graphics along with many other exciting areas. Fall and winter clubs are also available so students can choose to stay engaged year-round.
Run by the Faculty of Engineering and Design and with 15 students for the spring and summer and 4 for the fall and winter, Virtual Ventures has built a strong connection with students at Carleton. Tegan Kilpatrick, a student in her third year of a Bachelor of Information Technology in Interactive Multimedia and Design at Carleton is a leader for the summer camps and is a workshop instructor who goes to schools around Ottawa to conduct engaging science, engineering and technology workshops to spark kids’ interest.
While gaining the expected leadership, time management and organizational skills that come from working at a camp, students are also given the opportunity to build their research abilities as the instructors develop projects which are relevant to their research interests. Rufino Ansara and Tegan Kilpatrick were responsible for researching and running the Junior and Senior Game Design camps. They both feel they have gained a great deal of practical skills through researching and testing game engines and creating and implementing lesson plans based on the research they completed.
Leaders are also given the opportunity to learn from each other as instructors sometimes teach a curriculum designed by other leaders. Warda Alavi, a third year Aerospace Engineering student specializing in Space Systems and Design, particularly enjoyed learning Arduino and electrical concepts, game making software, and 3D modelling software from her peers. The exposure to “new software and programs will be very helpful in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) career,” according to Alavi.
When asked what her experience has been as director of this project, Mawuena Torkornoo responded “I love working with students who are not only passionate about what they are learning in school but also know how to pass on that knowledge and enthusiasm to younger generations.”
The Ottawa community is certainly taking note of this initiative. In 2012, Virtual Ventures was given the Actua & GE Canada Award for Leadership and Innovation for its innovative programming.
Student participants Rufino Ansara and Warda Alavi share with us their thoughts on how they have benefited from the program.
“My ability to present comfortably to large groups of people has improved immensely. Furthermore, teaching & conducting various workshops has forced me to step back and simplify advanced concepts in order to make them easily comprehensible to younger audiences. This has helped me to gain a better understanding of what I already know. All in all, I can say with confidence that Virtual Ventures has been a great help in allowing me to develop skills that will surely be helpful in the future.”-Rufino Ansara, class of ’13, Bachelor in Information Technology: Interactive Multimedia & Design
“In the future, as an engineer, I will constantly be faced with problems with design, programming, wiring, etc. In order to solve these problems, one must be able to troubleshoot and create mental instructions step-by-step. It is quite hard to manage doing this without lots of practice, knowing exactly what types of mistakes one makes most commonly, where to look for mistakes, etc. Helping the campers at Virtual Ventures to figure out why their program/game/code does not work, I have reinforced my troubleshooting skills.”-Warda Alavi, third year student in Aerospace Engineering, Space Systems and Design.