Spring Camp: BioEngineering

In this Spring Camp: Bioengineering we explore how the rules of the of a farm, a science lab, and the work, skills, STEM, and systems required through the lens of the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals. When we understand what the goals are, we can start looking at ecosystems and engineered systems with a better outlook.

This is an applied STEM week-long camp that seeks to introduce kids to the science and effort involved in creating, growing, maintaining, and explaining an urban farm. Boots and jeans are REQUIRED as this is a camp dealing with birds and rabbits. Shoes and hands must be easy to sterilize and clean.

Spring Camp Benefits

• A basic introduction to the animals, and pens at Mezzacello Urban Farm
• Learning applied STEM cues and patterns will help any person better understand how we are sustainable
• We will explore the role of structures and simple machies on a farm
• We will be exploring some of the various types of structures and tools needed
• We’ll be using design challenges to better allow farmers to care for ourselves and animals
• Encourage trust and communication, respect and belonging in your community
• Encourage kids to see their value together as problem solvers!
• This workshop is optimized for grades 5 – 9

Spring Camp Costs and Structures

May 27 – 31, 2024 9:00 – 4:00 Presentation at 3:30

COST: $250 for a seat and this includes supplies and a video presentation

MAX Class size: 15

All of Mezzacello’s camps are $250 and have a max capacity of 15 students. Each camp offers students to work together in teams and with Mezzacello staff to learn applied STEM and natural systems, or work in two teams! Teams in this context is very popular.

This camp will run May 27 -31, 2024 from 9:00 – 4:00. Lunch is not provided. From 1:00 – 2:00 each team will come together to teach each other what they know. This can be filmed or not. But sharing new knowledge is central to Mezzacello Urban Farm’s mission of Grow, Maintain, Sustain, and Explain.

Do you think you and your kid are up for the challenge? Sign up today before this weekend spring camp fills up!

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Summer Camp: BioEngineering

In this Summer Camp: Bioengineering we explore how the rules of the of a farm, a science lab, and the work, skills, STEM, and systems required through the lens of the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals. When we understand what the goals are, we can start looking at ecosystems and engineered systems with a better outlook.

This is an applied STEM week-long camp that seeks to introduce kids to the science and effort involved in creating, growing, maintaining, and explaining an urban farm. Boots and jeans are REQUIRED as this is a camp dealing with birds and rabbits. Shoes and hands must be easy to sterilize and clean.

Summer Camp Benefits

• A basic introduction to the animals, and pens at Mezzacello Urban Farm
• Learning applied STEM cues and patterns will help any person better understand how we are sustainable
• We will explore the role of structures and simple machies on a farm
• We will be exploring some of the various types of structures and tools needed
• We’ll be using design challenges to better allow farmers to care for ourselves and animals
• Encourage trust and communication, respect and belonging in your community
• Encourage kids to see their value together as problem solvers!
• This workshop is optimized for grades 5 – 9

Spring Camp Costs and Structures

July 29 – August 1, 2024 9:00 – 4:00 Presentation at 3:30

COST: $250 for a seat and this includes supplies and a video presentation

MAX Class size: 15

All of Mezzacello’s camps are $250 and have a max capacity of 15 students. Each camp offers students to work together in teams and with Mezzacello staff to learn applied STEM and natural systems, or work in two teams! Teams in this context is very popular.

This camp will run July 29 – August 1, 2024 from 9:00 – 4:00. Lunch is not provided. From 1:00 – 2:00 each team will come together to teach each other what they know. This can be filmed or not. But sharing new knowledge is central to Mezzacello Urban Farm’s mission of Grow, Maintain, Sustain, and Explain.

Do you think you and your kid are up for the challenge? Sign up today before this weekend spring camp fills up!

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Summer Camp: BioTech in Action

In this Summer Camp: BioTech in Action we explore how the rules of the of a farm, a science lab, and the work and systems required through the lens of the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals. When we understand what the goals are, we can start looking at ecosystems and engineered systems with a better outlook.

This is an applied STEM week-long camp that seeks to introduce kids to the science and effort involved in creating food, caring for animals, and systems. Boots and jeans are REQUIRED as this is a camp dealing with birds and rabbits. Shoes and hands must be easy to sterilize and clean.

Summer Camp Benefits

• A basic introduction to the animals, and pens at Mezzacello Urban Farm
• Learning applied STEM cues and patterns will help any person better understand how we are sustainable
• We will explore the role of pathology, sanitation, and proper care of animals
• We will be exploring some of the quirks of ducks, chickens, quail, rabbits, fish, and crickets
• We’ll be caring observing and highlighting the way cells and proper care allow farmers to care for ourselves and animals
• Encourage trust and communication, respect and belonging in your community
• Encourage kids to see their value together as problem solvers!
• This workshop is optimized for grades 5 – 9

Summer Camp Costs and Structures

July 22 – 25, 2024 9:00 – 4:00 Presentation at 3:30

COST: $250 for a seat and this includes supplies and a video presentation

MAX Class size: 15

All of Mezzacello’s camps are $250 and have a max capacity of 15 students. Each camp offers students to work together in teams and with Mezzacello staff to learn applied STEM and natural systems, or work in two teams! Teams in this context is very popular.

This camp will run July 22 – 26, 2024 from 9:00 – 4:00. Lunch is not provided. From 1:00 – 2:00 each team will come together to teach each other what they know. This can be filmed or not. But sharing new knowledge is central to Mezzacello Urban Farm’s mission of Grow, Maintain, Sustain, and Explain.

Do you think you and your kid are up for the challenge? Sign up today before this weekend spring camp fills up!

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The Golden Ticket Presentation

This is the Golden Ticket Presentation I gave 10/15/2023 at the Global Innovation Field Trip. It is a very nice presentation and I am very proud of myself. I am a Willy Wonka for summer camps and workshops on biotech, renewables and sustainability!

I chose Willy Wonka because I know globally this reference is still relevant to many kids around the world. I wanted something fun and accessible, but still mysterious and a tad dangerous? Mostly I wanted kids to see that failure is the path to learning when we play rather than work.

Oompa Loompas AKA Student Interns

I also love my “Oompa Loompas”. These were my kid teachers. You can see them in the screenshot of the video above.

They are LITERALLY the three young (and only) girls in this photo. They were (from Left to Right) Milana, Summer, and Arya.They helped me run and teach this summer camp on BioEngineering to this group of 16 boys.

I never told them I thought any of my interns were Oompa Loompas of course. I didn’t know it then either. This idea of Mezzacello Urban Farm as a metaphor for Wonkaland is quite new.

But these five young interns were just that! The magic that makes the magical place work and come alive in the hearts and the imagination of the young people in the camps and workshops. I literally could not have had the success I did without them.

Impacts and Pride

They did a terrific job, and I am very proud of them. I am proud of all the kids in my camps and workshops this year! 160 kids in 13 programs, and an additional 103 in my online events and tours.

The success of this intern program has been so great that I am extending it into 2024 with a new series of workshops on leadership and peer to peer mentorship and training. I will be announcing details later in November. To those parents who have already reached out, I have your data!

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This is a part of the City of Columbus Parks and Recreation Summer Grant Grant #1521-2023.

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Summer Camp Infrastructure and TheoDoor

This is my summer camp infrastructure and TheoDoor blog post. It isn’t the THINGS. It was what I could now do with those things.

What Is a TheoDoor?

It was one of my summer camp kids that came up with this idea! There are a lot of tools that are required to run a summer camp. But when kids and tools come together, there is chaos!

Kadyn’s brilliant strategy was to lay the tools out in a space and create outlines to place them. Then they placed them by mechanical and typical use. I just built infrastructure around it.

The following camp another young genius (My friend, Genivieve) named my door storage system, “TheoDOOR”. That was a stroke of genius. Now there are FOUR TheoDOORS!

The BioLab TheoDOOR

The BioLab has a dutch door. This is by design. One of the roles of the BioLab door is to be open above, but secured below. This allows for students and urban farmers to keep animals safely contained within the BioLab but still allow for tools and air to circulate above.

In the winter and early spring, the BioLab will double as a greenhouse facility. So TheoDoor III and IV will be dedicated to tools for growing food and conducting basic biological experiments. I love the way the boots get arranged around the doors.

Helping Engineers Become Engineers

It’s useless to have tools for use if you do not educate and empower young people to understand, use, and respect tools. They see them naturally as toys. But they cannot be treated like toys.

These tools are expensive and exclusive and they require knowledge, experience, and imagination to use. That is why the TheoDoor system is so important. It reminds kids that these tools live in a special kingdom, free of rain, sunlight, and prying hands.

That last part: rain, sun, and prying hands is CRITICAL. 12 critical pieces of equipment were lost due to carelessness. Tools lost in bushes, or left out, or just broken and never mentioned for fear of retribution. That last part is where the most important part of growth at Mezzacello matters.

This is WHY I do what I do. I want people to grow naturally. I want young people to be, see, explore who they believe they are. This is a good dream and it is worth dreaming about.

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This is a part of the City of Columbus Parks and Recreation Summer Grant Grant #1521-2023

BioEngineering From The Eyes of a Child

This summer I was able to run a series of five camps and three workshops all around the fun of applied STEM on an urban farm. Shortly after my first bioengineering camp ended, I received this email with a photo of this letter. It details BioEngineering From The Eyes of a Child.

The Contents of the Letter

8-28-23
I went to a bioenggenering camp. I helped a dieing chickion.
And designed a good sucer place for them to stay. It was so much fun to hold bunise and cwale.
And I made a funeral for the chickions that died R.I.P.
And I learned to make a gocart and it was so much fun at my bioenggering camp.
I will deffinitly go back next year and help my good friend Jim.

For context, during this camp a raccoon attacked and seriously injured a chicken. This student treated the bird in the biolab, but the wounds were too severe. They also treated rabbits and quail.

The go cart is part of the robotics and simple machines section of the camp. The funeral for chicken number 3 was touching. They planned the exact location where the atomic and molecular components of the dead “chickion” would be of maximum benefit to life.

This really touched me. This student is referring to becoming a teaching intern next summer. I will gladly take on such a smart and brave intern. When the opportunity arises.

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This is a part of the City of Columbus Parks and Recreation Summer Grant Grant #1521-2023

BioRenewables Lesson Plans

Welcome to the Mezzacello 2023 BioRenewables Lesson Plans page. Here you will find the suggested lessons, activities, design challenges, plans and resources for running the BioEngineering summer camp at Mezzacello. If you would like to sort through other lessons, simply click here.

Day One:

Introduction to Mezzacello and BioRenewables

1. LESSON: Farm Systems – Layout and Systems of the farm and safety protocols
2. ACTIVITY: Nature, Engineering, and Problem Solving
3. Design Challenge: Duct Tape Trivia
4. Design Challenge: Build a Gate

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1. LESSON: Team Building – Types of Engineers
2. ACTIVITY: Leadership Roulette
3. Design Challenge: Team Identity
4. Design Challenge: STEM Identity
5. Video: How Power is created

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1. LESSON: Layers of Reality – A fun way to introduce the STEM in #UrbanAgTech by creating a model for the way the world works through art and lecture.
2. ACTIVITY: Create a Nested Doll Set
3. Design Challenge: Build an Atom

Day Two

Webs of Life and Pressure

1. LESSON: Webs of Life – a quick review of where in our world we interact with Atoms and why.
2. ACTIVITY: Three Systems to Understand Mezzacello

   • Engineering Systems

   • Biological Systems
   • Systems Integration

3. Design Challenge: Water and Air Pressure
4. Design Challenge: Phases of Matter

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1. LESSON: Under Pressure – How pressure is everywhere and seemingly nowhere and why
2. ACTIVITY: Building a Water Evaporation System in the Biodome
3. Design Challenge: Build a Chicken Feeder and Waterer

Day Three:

Biomimicry and Pattern, Process, and Structure

1. LESSON: The Circle of Life – a crash course into Applied STEM and Math integration in Ag and in STEM.
2. ACTIVITY: Break a complex problem into simple machines – explore the six simple machines at Mezzacello.
3. Design Challenge: Explore all aspects of pressure (physical, electrical, emotional, social)
4. Design Challenge: Identify a Reframe of a Simple Problem

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1. LESSON: As Above; So Below – a reminder that life is sophisticated and deeper than we want to acknowledge, but is essentially Yin and Yang with a boundary layer.
2. ACTIVITY: Fear, Anxiety, Failure, and Confidence – emotional pressure
3. Design Challenge: Air, Water, Earth, Fire– the way energy propagates across our experience

Day Four

Careers and Why Engineering Matters on a Farm

1. LESSON: Career Crossover – Allows students to reflect on what they have observed and how it impacts their curiosity and their future.
2. ACTIVITY: Being an Engineer: Three problems to solve
3. Design Challenge: Team Algorithm
4. Design Challenge: Interview for Your Future Job

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1. LESSON: Public Speaking 101
2. ACTIVITY: Discuss and whiteboard with your team what your video will be
3. Design Challenge: Assign Random Roles
4. Design Challenge: Create a Bio dome

Day Five

Presentation Day

• Finish Your Product Development
• Prep for Presentation
• Present your Final Presentation

BioEngineering Lesson Plans

Welcome to the Mezzacello 2024 BioEngineering Lesson Plans page. Here you will find the suggested lessons, activities, design challenges, plans and resources for running the BioEngineering summer camp at Mezzacello. If you would like to sort through other lessons, simply click here.

Day One:

Introduction to Mezzacello and BioEngineering

1. LESSON: Farm Systems – Layout and Systems of the farm and safety protocols
2. ACTIVITY: Nature, Engineering, and Problem Solving
3. Design Challenge: Duct Tape Trivia
4. Design Challenge: Build a Gate

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1. LESSON: Team Building – Types of Engineers
2. ACTIVITY: Leadership Roulette
3. Design Challenge: Team Identity
4. Design Challenge: STEM Identity

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1. LESSON: Layers of Reality – A fun way to introduce the STEM in #UrbanAgTech by creating a model for the way the world works through art and lecture.
2. LESSON: Molecular Machines in Nature
3. Design Challenge: Build an Atom

Day Two

Webs of Life and Pressure

1. LESSON: Webs of Life – a quick review of where in our world we interact with Atoms and why.
2. ACTIVITY: Three Systems to Understand Mezzacello

   • Engineering Systems

   • Biological Systems
   • Systems Integration

3. Design Challenge: Water and Air Pressure
4. Design Challenge: Phases of Matter

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1. LESSON: Under Pressure – How pressure is everywhere and seemingly nowhere and why
2. ACTIVITY: Building a Water Evaporation System in the Biodome
3. Design Challenge: Build a Chicken Feeder and Waterer
4. Design Challenge: Build a simple dome for growing plants and sterilizing water

Day Three:

Biomimicry and Pattern, Process, and Structure

1. LESSON: The Circle of Life – a crash course into Applied STEM and Math integration in Ag and in STEM.
2. ACTIVITY: Break a complex problem into simple machines – explore the six simple machines at Mezzacello.
3. Design Challenge: Explore all aspects of pressure (physical, electrical, emotional, social)
4. Design Challenge: Identify a Reframe of a Simple Problem
5. Design Challenge: Make a mechanical origami bird and bird launcher

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1. LESSON: As Above; So Below – a reminder that life is sophisticated and deeper than we want to acknowledge, but is essentially Yin and Yang with a boundary layer.
2. ACTIVITY: Fear, Anxiety, Failure, and Confidence – emotional pressure
3. Design Challenge: Air, Water, Earth, Fire– the way energy propagates across our experience

Day Four

Careers and Why Engineering Matters on a Farm

1. LESSON: Career Crossover – Allows students to reflect on what they have observed and how it impacts their curiosity and their future.
2. ACTIVITY: Being an Engineer: Three problems to solve
3. Design Challenge: Team Algorithm
4. Design Challenge: Interview for Your Future Job

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1. LESSON: Public Speaking 101
2. ACTIVITY: Discuss and whiteboard with your team what your video will be
3. Design Challenge: Assign Random Roles
4. Design Challenge: Create a Bio dome
5. Design Challenge: Create a Biome
6. Design Challenge: Create an ecology in a box

Day Five

Presentation Day

• Finish Your Product Development
• Prep for Presentation and finalize scripts
• Shoot your team’s video
• Present your Final Presentation

Project BioEngineering Arts and Crafts

These are some of the proposed Project BioEngineering Arts and Crafts projects for the 2023 Summer Camps. Some projects are subject to change.

1. Make foil, copper, and vinyl mazes

   • a simple maze made out the camper’s name that lights up with a circuit and a small battery.

2. Make a grass weaving tool

   • A simple loom made of popsicle sticks and a simple weft and shuttle system for weaving fabric.

3. Make a rabbit maze

   • Using milk crates and hoops build a rabbit maze that will keep rabbits engaged and searching for a carrot.

4. Make chicken washing soap

   • Make soap in a bag made of woven pieces to better wash chickens and rabbits. Welding with thread.

5. Make a LEGO mold

   • Using a large lego mold, create plaster bricks that can be used to make a foundation. An alternate will be a sugar, salt, and fat mold with seeds to feed birds.

6. Make a 3D printed pinecone bird feeder

   • Using 3D printed pine cones, lotus cages, and magnolia seeds to create peanut butter and seed feeders.

7. Make a chicken swing

   • Make a simple swing from rope or rubber twine and a stick to allow chickens to swing.

8. Make a chicken tractor

   • Make a mini chicken tractor that can be pulled by a RC tank around the yard.

9. Make a 3D Paper Mache treasure map

   • Make a flat topographic map of Mezzacello and take turns hiding a treasure. Then create fun clues that can be integrated into the map.

10. Make a sugar window charm

    • Make an isomalt or sugar window charm with popsicle sticks, or pipecleaners that is rigid enough to stand on its own.

11. Make glass bees

    • Make a bee from glass stones, onion skins, twigs, and hot glue that will stand on its own.

12. Make a woven bird house

    • Make a bird house from a 3D printed base shape that is decorated with objects and pieces that birds can actually use to build a house.

13. Make a biodynamic keychain

    • Make a dynamic tensor shape with dowel rods, play dough, and rubber bands.

14. Make a fingerprint art charm

    • Make a clean finger print that can be projected to twice its size and retraced into a piece of art.

15. Make seed bombs

    • Make flour, water, and salt play dough embedded with wildflower seeds inside.

16. Make Hoberman fences

    • Make a dynamic expanding fence with popsicle sticks and brass brads that will stretch across a space and remain stable.

17. Make a model seed

    • Make a seed model from felt, foam, paper, and confetti.

18. Make ultrasonic sand art

    • Using an ultrasonic plate with a paper plate attached, add sand and attenuate the ultrasonic frequency to make a geometry. Then spray the sand into a locked position.

Project Renewables Arts and Craft

This is the project renewables arts and crafts topics we will be exploring in this summer camp. Crafts are subject to change.

1. Make a pile battery

   • Make a battery of copper and zinc with a grapefruit electrolyte and potato capacitor.

2. Make magnetic sand

   • Make sand with iron and ceramic, and using a powerful electromagnet to create magnetic sand.

3. Make a copper spiderweb

   • Make a web with copper wire and a four dowels. Weave a web that will transmit a current from a battery to an LED light.

4. Weave insulating rubber cover

   • Make an insulator with heat shrink hollow rubber string, cover copper wires and create an insulated wire that will transmit a 9-volt current.

5. Make grounding rod art

   • Make a sculpture out of hollow copper tubing and wire, that will also serve as a grounding rod.

6. Make a compass

   • Make a compass out of a tin jar with a tight plastic lid. Fill with alcohol with a magnetized iron brad on a floating cork.

7. Make iron filings from dirt

   • Make an iron sieve for dry dirt and a powerful electromagnet. Create art on a paper plate.

8. Make a bus fuze art pendant

   • Make a fuze from LEGOs and copper wire and hot glue.

9. Make a spinning top generator

   • Make a magnetic base and a steel top that can power the oscillating top.

10. Make a 9-volt horn

    • Make a horn from a 3D Printed horn and a 9-volt battery created with two AAA batteries and a copper connector.

11. Make a 6-volt flashlight

    • Make a 6-volt battery with four D-Cell batteries and a copper and zinc connector. Attach the “battery” to an DC LED lamp.

12. Make an ionizing water well

    • Make a 1 Quart jar water well with marbles and ball bearings that have been sterilized in alcohol. Set the jar on a speaker and fill with water to create sonic pulses that will pull heavy impurities to the bottom.

13. Make a 6-volt telegraph

    • Make 2 6-volt battery with four D-Cell batteries and connect them with a metal switch and bit of wire. Send messages from one telegraph to another.

14. Make a simple motor

    • Make a motor by rewiring a motor armature and attaching it to a 12-volt battery to induce an induction current.

15. Make a decorative fan

    • Make a Savonius wind turbine that will spin with a persistent image that must be created.

16. Make a cinema reel

    • Make a comic strip that will be applied to a spinning wheel. While the wheel spins a persistent image will appear.

17. Make a motorized spin art

    • Make a spinning disk and spin it up, powered by a six-volt battery. Apply paints and dyes to create art as the disk spins.

18. Make a dimmer switch

    • Make a variable voltage switch that will reduce current in measured amounts. Use the dimmer to send messages as morse or binary code.