Steampunkinetics Workshop Makes a Splash at Summer Camp

Middle school and high school students at Camp Ramah in New England collaborate on team projects to build a Rube Goldberg-style rolling ball sculpture contraption

Machaneh Ramah is a network of Jewish summer camps that offer participants enrichment activities to broaden young minds. The first camp opened in Conover, WI in 1947. Since those early days, locations have been established throughout the U.S. – Today, the organization runs educational programs internationally as well.

This summer, the New England overnight camp located in Palmer, MA welcomed Steampunkinetics as a multi-day workshop embracing History, Art, and Technology – giving campers a unique opportunity to think “inside-the-milk crate”, by working in small teams to design and build a segment of a “rolling ball maze” and then collaborate with other teams to assemble a cohesive kinetic sculpture. (click here for video)

Rising to the Challenge

This 5-day Steampunk program was taught by Bruce Rosenbaum of ModVic, LLC with support of a local former teacher, Janice Fountain and Guy Nyzio, Electronics Instructor at Pathfinder Vocational School in Palmer MA, along with students Ethan Griswold, Gavin Rivera and Cody Ferus. The challenge posed to the Camp Ramah teams was to convert 1940s milk crates and salvaged objects into a series of Steampunk “galaxy rooms”. Each crate which would include 3 rail tracks that smoothly transferred steel ball bearings from an entry to an exit point in each crate room. Each exit point had to then match up with the next crate’s starting point.

In this fashion the steel bearings pass from “room” to “room”. The theme was set as the galaxy “Milk”-E-Way and the artistic elements included backgrounds painted like space and decorated with LED lights as stars.

“It gives me a chance to be creative and combine STEM with art – my two favorite things!” said Sophia.

The Power of Teamwork

One of the many benefits of the workshop is that it teaches collaboration. The teams were setup as groups of 3 – amongst themselves, teams quickly divided project responsibilities with each one in charge of either the build, the painting (decoration or style), or the electronics.

They were given 18” segments of 3-rail track to work with and team members would cut them to size. They also coiled copper wire to make turns in the sculpture.

“It was really a big challenge to turnaround a working rolling ball sculpture in a short amount of time,” said Rosenbaum. “The teams themselves and the neighboring teams had to cooperate to calculate ball “drops”, which take into account pitch, angles, and speed. Incredibly, when all the crates came together – the ball made a full run with no snags on the first try! That usually never happens.”

The ball had to fall smoothly into the next milk crate. Campers went the extra mile to earn kudos for style, using electronics – lights that glowed, others that blinked, even sound effects that were triggered by a bearing’s motion through the tracks.

Bruce noted that participants truly embraced the Steampunk philosophy which often involves antiques and historic materials infused with modern technologies to create whimsical assembly art.

History of Steampunkinetics

Bruce first introduced the program with professor Ashley Hillier at UMass Lowell as a study with children on the Autism Spectrum. (click here for video)

Since that initial success it has been a big hit with atypical and neurotypical students alike. The complexity of the challenge can be catered to match the learning skills and levels of the participants.

The Steampunkinetics Workshop formula teaches creative problem solving, collaboration, adaptive reuse, and resilience through team building and hands-on experience.