Program Design, Camp Badger Exploring Engineering Program, UW-Madison

Program Design

Approach

The College of Engineering founded Camp Badger in 1998. Experience has taught us that the best way to help young people understand what engineers do is through a combination of plant tours, field trips, visits to job sites, in-class activities, and small group discussions with professional and student engineers.

From the time campers arrive on Sunday afternoon until they leave the following Saturday morning, we keep them busy with engineering-related activities. Our campers:

  • participate in project-based engineering/science exploration.
  • work in high-tech computer labs.
  • visit engineering facilities on and off campus.
  • tour local companies.

Campers will observe and participate in applied knowledge situations in labs and research facilities so they will have a better idea of what engineers do in real-life situations.

Activities

In past years our campers have:

  • visited an airport control tower, a fusion reactor, an 11-story construction site, the Kohl Center, the Tenney Locks, nuclear power plant, and a coal-burning heating plant.
  • developed telescopes and looked through the University telescope in the Washburn Observatory.
  • toured the Geology Museum.
  • discovered an inside look at UW experimental cars.
  • explored the cockpit of an F-16.
  • observed the robotic assembly line at GM-Janesville.
  • toured behind the scenes at a state-of-the-art bowling alley.
  • viewed demonstrations of paper making, wind tunnel testing, and set-up of an industrial assembly line.

Above all, they have had a lot of fun and learned what engineers contribute to the world.

Supervision

Camp Badger campers are never left unsupervised. They eat their meals at a UW-Madison cafeteria and live in an undergraduate residence hall on campus. We have adult counselors in the dormitories all night. During the day, our program counselors supervise campers and share their educational experiences.

Because we want our campers to learn as much as possible about all the different facets of engineering, we follow a full schedule of activities and our curriculum leaves campers with very little unstructured "free time."