About
At FalconCamps, middle and high school students learn about mechanical design and/or programming in the context of competitive robotics. Camp sessions help students develop valuable skills for joining an FRC team or pursuing a future in a STEM field.
FalconCamps sessions are one-week long and consist of daily two-hour classes. With the guidance of experienced members of Team 4099, campers work cooperatively to design and/or program a robot to complete certain tasks, as they would for a FIRST Robotics Competition. Each camp session culminates in a final project where students show off what they have learned.
This year, Team 4099 is hosting two weeks of FalconCamps (one beginner and one intermediate). Design sessions are held in the morning, and programming sessions are held in the afternoon. Read further to learn more about the material being taught in each of the sessions.
Design
Beginner
This session covers the basics of Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and mechanical design thinking. We take a look at the thought process behind robot mechanisms and some complex robot CAD. This all leads up into the final project — creating your own full mechanism!
More Details
- Monday: What is CAD? We go over the basics of mechanical design thinking and some examples in CAD, as well as real-world scenarios in which CAD has a role.
- Tuesday: Getting comfy with CAD! You’ll learn about some of the basic tools and get some hands-on experience in making some basic models.
- Wednesday: We look at more complex features of CAD and talk about more shortcuts in the design process!
- Thursday: Start your projects! Groups are given a real-world problem and will come up with a solution using CAD and mechanical design skills they’ve learned over the week.
- Friday: Groups will finish up their projects and show the great ideas they’ve come up with!
Intermediate
This course covers the optimal usage and mathematical analysis of FRC hardware. In addition, we take a deeper dive into the more complex features of Onshape and FRC-specific tips and tricks. The final project is to fully CAD a robot subsystem from scratch!
More Details
- Monday: Introducing Mechanical Design Thinking! We go over some circuitry and physics basics, as well as the hardware used when we’re building a robot. We also get started on working with CAD and get familiar with some of the tools on there.
- Tuesday: We look at some of the things you need to factor in when designing your robot.
- Wednesday: Hands-on experience of designing different parts of a robot! We go over some more tools we use in CAD and look at some past robots from great teams.
- Thursday and Friday: Groups will work on making a full mechanism that fits in with a past robot used in FRC competition!
Programming
Beginner
This course covers core programming concepts, the basics of Python, introduction to object-oriented programming. Campers will finish the course with a basic understanding of how Python works.
More Details
- Monday: Introducing Python! We will go over the basics, such as getting a sentence to print to your screen and understanding the flow of code.
- Tuesday: What are booleans? We'll go over the basics of booleans, if and else statements, and finish the day off with loops.
- Wednesday: We look at the basics of storing data in Python and how we can combine what we learned from yesterday with today.
- Thursday: Writing code efficiently! We’ll learn what and how to use methods and their fundamental purpose in programming.
- Friday: Introducing Turtle! An interactive way to recap all of what was learned from the week into a singular project.
Intermediate
This course covers more in-depth Python concepts as well as learning more about object-oriented programming and working together on making a project.
More Details
- Monday: Rewind time! We will recap concepts from Beginner and go over built-in methods for certain data types.
- Tuesday: What are objects? We’ll introduce a fundamental concept in programming and it’s used.
- Wednesday: Building on yesterday, we’ll see how we can make our own classes that could later be used to make objects.
- Thursday & Friday: Groups will work on a programming project that uses all of their knowledge from the past two weeks!
Logistics and General Information
Required Forms: The Online Media and Consent Form should be signed and uploaded to the Google Form during registration.
Time:
- Design: 10:00AM - 12:00PM
- Programming: 1:00PM - 3:00PM
10:00AM - 12:00PM
Beginner
June 24
to
June 28
Intermediate
July 1
to
July 5
Beginner
June 24
to
June 28
Intermediate
July 1
to
July 5
1:00PM - 3:00PM
Location: Camps will be held every day in the session over a Zoom call. The link will be sent out a few days prior via email.
Registration fee: $100 / session - Please pay via our PayPal link in the registration form. If the cost is an issue, please email the Scholarship Application Form to falconcamps@team4099.com.
Refund Policy: Withdrawing your registration two weeks prior to the course will give you a full refund. Withdrawing one week prior will give you a $60 refund. Anything sooner will not allow for a refund.
**Further questions? Check out our FAQs section or email us at falconcamps@team4099.com.
Prerequisites
Before registering for a session, make sure you read the corresponding Prerequisite Information below. If your camper has equal resources and knowledge to what is described, then they meet the prerequisites. If you have questions about the prerequisites, please email falconcamps@team4099.com
Design Prerequisites
Beginner
- A device that can run Onshape which you can test here
- A real mouse as opposed to a trackpad (not required but highly reccomended)
Intermediate
-
Understand Beginner course topics:
- Navigating Onshape
- Using material options and Onshape tools
- Creating a mechanism sketch in CAD
Programming Prerequisites
Beginner
- A computer
Intermediate
-
Understand Beginner course topics:
- Python logic and syntax
- Methods
- How to use Repl.it
Q: Who are the camp instructors?
Q. What is the difference between RoboCamps and FalconCamps?
Q: What will a FalconCamps session look like?
Q: Who are FalconCamps meant for?
- Any middle and high school students who want to learn more about mechanical design or programming
- Any middle or high school aged students who plan to join Team 4099 or any other FIRST Robotics Competition team, and want to have a head start on the content these teams need
- Any high school students, or older mentors, on FIRST Robotics Competition teams that do not have significant programming mentorship, or don’t do much CAD, but want their team to get better in these areas.
Q: My child has no experience with robotics, CAD, or programming. Can they still participate?
Q: I am interested in attending FalconCamps, but cost is an issue.
Q: I am a mentor on an FRC team, but want to learn more about design/programming through these camps. Can I sign up?
Q: What sets these camps apart from online resources and workshops put out by FIRST teams?
First, the learning environment is more structured, which works better for many students. Many students have a harder time learning from random videos found on YouTube and the occasional post on online forums than they do with one-on-one discussion. FalconCamps offers a more structured, personalized learning experience.
Secondly, Team 4099 has found that while there are plenty of online resources for advanced level learning for FRC concepts, there is a lot of content missing for students at the beginner and intermediate concepts who may, for example, have never used CAD software before.
Team 4099 greatly appreciates all of the content that is out there and is freely available for use by all teams (many of our team members learned from these resources). FalconCamps act as a supplement, rather than a replacement, for this content.
2021 Falconcamps Beginner Design
2021 Falconcamps Intermediate Design
2021 Falconcamps Beginner Programming
2021 Falconcamps Intermediate Programming