Open Lab + Showcase

Theme 3 of 3

Open Lab & Showcase

Two sessions. The first is yours — pick a path, extend something, mentor someone, catch up. The second brings family and program staff in to see what you built.

No new content. No new specialty. Time to refine, present, and reflect.

🔧 Open Lab

Today you choose. No new instruction, no new specialty, no graded mission. Pick a path that pulls at you and work on it for 90 minutes.

Pick a path
Four ways to spend today — pick one (or move between two)
🚢 Path 1 — Extend your sub

That one thing you didn't have time for? Try it. Add another sub-system, refine the one you have, attempt a riskier sensor, redesign the hull. Your sub from Bushnell is in the room. Make it better.

⚡ Path 2 — Build a new circuit thing

Go back to the Franklin toolkit — batteries, LEDs, alligator clips, Makey Makey. Build something you didn't get to. A more complex alarm. A musical instrument. A game controller. Anything that uses circuits.

🤝 Path 3 — Mentor another pair

A pair whose sub didn't quite work — help them get it working. A pair stuck on Scratch — teach them what you know. You learned things other pairs didn't. Pass them on.

📓 Path 4 — Deep-dive your notebook

Catch up on every sketch, data table, and reflection you skipped. Add detail to the ones you rushed. Next session, guests will flip through your notebook — make it worth the read.

A few rules for the open lab:
  • Move between paths if you want, or stay on one — your call.
  • Materials are shared. If you're not using something, return it.
  • Same safety rules from earlier sessions apply.
  • If you start something today, finish it today — don't leave loose ends.
Instructions
Before you leave: notebook entry

Two lines in your 📓 Inventor's Notebook on the Open Lab page:

  • Which path I picked, and why.
  • One thing I figured out today.
🎤 Showcase

Today: family, program staff, and friends come to see what you built. Three parts — set up, run the showcase, wrap your notebook.

Instructions
Part I: Before guests arrive — set up your station

Use the time before doors open.

  1. Find your station at a water bin. Set up your sub, your sensor, and your Makey Makey kit.
  2. Run the full mission once — submerge, hold, surface, sensor fires. Make sure everything still works.
  3. Put your 📓 Inventor's Notebook open on the table. Sketches and data should be visible. People will flip through it.
  4. Make a station card with your sub's name, your pair's names, and your specialty.
Your 4-sentence spiel — rehearse it with your pair:
  1. What it is: "This is our submarine. It's designed to [your specialty]."
  2. How it works: "The clay ballast lets it dive, and the Makey Makey sensor fires when..."
  3. The hard part: "Getting it to hover instead of sink took six tries."
  4. What's wired up: "Watch — when I drop the sub, Scratch plays a sound."
Instructions
Part II: Showcase time — talk to guests

Stay at your station. Guests will walk by. Some will stop. Your job is to bring them in.

Open with a demo, not a description. When someone walks up, don't start by explaining. Run it first. Sink the sub. Fire the sensor. Let them watch it work. Then talk.

Don't apologize. Explain. If something fails mid-demo, say what real engineers say:

  • "That's our biggest failure mode. Here's why it happens..."
  • "It works most of the time. Let me reset it."
  • "That's actually what we'd fix with more time. We'd add..."

Show the notebook. Your 📓 Inventor's Notebook is proof of the work. Open it. Show the sketches. Show the data tables. Show the reflection where you wrote about what surprised you. This is the part most people don't expect — that engineering is mostly writing things down. Surprise them.

Instructions
Part III: After guests leave — notebook wrap

When guests have gone, take time for the workshop wrap in your notebook.

In your 📓 Inventor's Notebook, fill in the workshop reflection pages: what Franklin gave you, what Bushnell gave you, what you can do now that you couldn't on day one, and the one thing you want to build next.

You built things this summer.

You wired circuits. You sank submarines. You built sensors that worked in water. You troubleshot Makey Makey when the teacher couldn't. You presented in front of family.

Engineers aren't people who already know how things work. They're people who figure it out by building, breaking, and trying again. You did that. That's who you are now.

Where to go from here

The skills you built this summer connect to real career paths — most of them with multiple ways in, and not all of them require a four-year degree:

  • Electrical engineering · electronics technician · lineworker — Franklin's lineage. Community colleges have great two-year programs.
  • Mechanical engineering · marine engineering · naval architecture — Bushnell's lineage. Look up Webb Institute (full scholarships for ship design).
  • Robotics · automation · autonomous vehicles — sensor work, what you did across both themes. Companies that hire entry-level: SpaceX, Boston Dynamics, Tesla, Amazon Robotics.

Talk to your college counselor. Look up programs. Visit campuses. The work you did this summer was real — the careers it connects to are real too.

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