Day 3: Mentor Madness

Today was the first Mentor Wednesday! Our mentors are campers from previous years that come and help out with camp. They are invaluable members

of the Spira team, engaging students and helping out with difficult subject material and projects. The mentors also work to make long-lasting relationships with the campers. We started off the day with mentor-led discussions on how to approach problems we know nothing about. Afterwards, we watched a TED talk by Debbie Sterling, who works to change the field of engineering to be more inclusive of women, starting off from an early age. We look forward to continuing this conversation throughout the camp. The mentors then led mini projects building catapults, marble roller coasters, bow-and-arrows, and extendable arms.

After lunch, Khipra Nichols, an industrial design professor at RISD and a former lead product designer at Hasbro , came in to talk about the design process that he goes through. He then led an activity with the campers in which they split into pairs and had to design and make a wallet for their partners. This process involved interviewing their partner to understand what their partner's needs were. The campers had to go through multiple iterations of the wallet before they finished the final product. We are looking forward to an exciting day tomorrow, which will include a field trip!