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Re: [Linux-aus] Request for Grant from Linux Australia for Ubertweak

Kylie Willison wrote:

On Tue, 2006-09-12 at 12:41 +1000, Elspeth Thorne wrote:


Date: 2006-09-12

Project Name: Ubertweak, http://ubertweak.org.au




Hi Elspeth
This is a great concept, I would like to see more of these camps around
Australia!  Do you get many girls going to them?  How many students go
to the camps?  What sort of activities do you do with the students?
What level of experience is needed?  Is there any follow up or support
for students after the camp.  Do the students bring their own computers
or laptops?  Do they learn to install an operating system?  These
questions are just for my own interest and curiosity.

I would like to see Linux Australia support this grant request because
the project's equipping young people and helping them realise their
potential. 

Kylie




Hi Kyle,

I'm happy to answer your questions :) Please, if there is anything you want to know, feel free to ask!

We do get a few girls coming along; I believe we had 5 last year. One of which is coming along to the spring camp this year, which is good to see. Last year we had 42 students total, and in the Winter camp we had 33 students. Currently we're looking at about 30 students for Spring as well, which is good to see. We are trying to raise female participation in camp, but it's a bit challenging.

We do a fairly wide range of activities. 3D game design, 3D modelling, Music Looping, Programming (Python this year), Computer Innards, Network basics, Video Editing, Web Design, Photo Manipulation, Lego Mindstorms amongst others. We don't assume that the students have been taught anything before, but we do get a wide range of experience, so we try to provide enough expertise so that students recieve the attention they need to either learn the basics or extend their abilities. In addition, the leaders spend hundreds of hours ahead of camp preparing the camp manual, which is currently clocking in at around 155 pages.

The students all recieve the leaders' contact details - due to policy regarding childcare we are unable to actively follow them up after camp unless they request it. That said, I keep in regular contact (mostly via IM) with a few past campers, as do other leaders.

We used to allow students to bring their own hardware, but after a few issues with thefts and breakages and the like, we no longer do this. However, we do give out Knoppix CDs (and perhaps Ubuntu CDs in the future) with clear instructions on how to install the software. The students are familiar with the knoppix desktop that we have created for them, because they use it for most of the week on camp. Also, this year there are plans to inform them of HUMBUG (http://humbug.org.au) so that if they run into trouble, they can come in and get help :)

With luck, if this camp is successful, we will be able to look into expanding into a third camp some time in the next couple of years, targeted at upper primary school kids. We have also recieved some interest in possibly running an interstate camp, but don't yet have the resources (especially leaders) to run this.

I hope this answers your questions :)

Regards,

Elspeth.