BY DEBORAH BROWN
SUTTON COUNTY LIBRARY

This camp was all about learning how we explore other planets in our solar system. Students will prototype their own shoebox rover using household materials to complete their mission objectives.

Day one started off with a color photo study of what the planets are made up of, choosing their planet, and recreating it with colored pencils, watercolors and paints. Next, a questionnaire about their mission and goals for their rover, along with deciding which engineering system would be best for their mission and designing wheels & axels, levers, wedges, pulleys, screws and inclined planes. The following days were dedicated to physically creating everything needed to send the rover to outer space on a successful mission.

All items on the rover had to serve a purpose, no decorative items allowed. Not all moments were fun, and more than once the campers had to go back to the drawing board to start over, but they certainly showed perseverance and came out successful. To say the campers went above and beyond in creating their rovers is an understatement! The ingenuity they put into creating working mechanisms was mind blowing! We definitely got a glimpse of some amazing future engineers during our week long camp.

This was the first time Sutton County Library has held such a camp, and we will plan on doing something similar next year. This project was made possible from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (Grant #LS-24999-OLS-21) *to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act. (2021). A huge and heartfelt Thank You to the Tom Green County Public Library for including us in this grant, along with the Engineering Department at Angelo State University, Eurekus, and The Niche Academy.