12-16 July 2021: Face to Face in Kensington
This new and inspiring camp offers children the chance to engage in hands-on experiments and projects designed to teach electronics and robotics, programming and maths. Whether your child is already a confident programmer or just starting out, we will create the most appropriate small study group for them, based on their age and experience.
In Robotics and Programming, participants will discover an alternative world of robots and how to programme them. Pupils will build and code ‘lightsabers’ that glow in varying intensities or change colour depending on the angle at which they are held or the speed they move through the air. Pupils will learn how these effects are created by programming a robotics control box. Inside each box, alongside the processing chips, are a gyroscope and accelerometer which detect movement and interact with the code created by our camp participants to produce the exciting effects lightsabers are known for.
In Electronics and Technology, children will engage in a project to build a spherical LED lamp. Children will begin by learning how to wire and connect an LED strip to an Arduino board via a special ‘clicker’. Next, pupils will create a folding sphere which will contain the LED to form the lamp. Pupils will then be introduced to the functionality of a FastLED library for Arduino to control the lighting. The end-user then plugs the lamp into a basic USB charger and the lamp comes to life, emitting a beautiful light spectrum with a gently changing pattern.
At the end of this project pupils will see a uniquely coloured pattern from their own LED lamp which they can take home (subject to receipt of our Safety Letter). Participants can enjoy their creation by perhaps placing it on a bedside table or desk. The lamp could also be an amazing handmade present!
In Maths, as part of the camp, all year groups have a one hour maths lesson each day. Participants can also join an extra problem solving session in the morning from 9 to 10am. Children will tackle different levels of UKMT challenges from the Primary Maths Challenge and International Kangaroo, up to more senior levels looking at Combinatorics, Number Theory and Senior UKMT challenges.
Here are more details of what will be studied by each Year group during the camp:
Years 3-4
The beginnings of Combinatorics. How many ways are there to colour a cube? How many different meal combinations can be chosen from a menu? How many routes can be taken from A to B? Systematic counting serves as a basis on which to build the main ideas of combinatorics and we invite our younger campers to make their first steps in the art of enumeration.
Years 5-6
Pupils will learn the basics of Combinatorics and become familiar with non-decimal number systems. In problem solving lessons, pupils will work on past problems from the UK and international mathematics competitions for their age groups.
Years 7-9
The mathematics of Twenty Questions and how to handle lost questions and lies: football pools and winning strategies, Hamming Distance and the geometry of the space of words. Pupils will study the Combinatorics of words and games and the strange world of Dog Geometry.
Years 10-11
The mathematics of Twenty Questions and how to handle lost questions and lies: football pools and winning strategies, Hamming Distance and the geometry of the space of words: simultaneous systems of equations and Hamming codes: error probabilities on a CD and the problem of how to discover the ‘wrong weight’.
Format and fees for the senior face to face camp:
- pupil to teacher ratio of 6:1 for maths, 5:1 for programming and 4:1 for robotics
- classes comprise small groups of pupils of similar age and ability
- camp times: 10am to 3pm
- fees are £585 for five days. It is not possible to join for a shorter period
- your child can also join us from 9am for an extra hour of olympiad style maths or additional coding, or continue from 3pm to 4pm with our chess class. There is a supplement of £25 for each additional session booked
Places are limited, please register your interest HERE.