2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This resource exchange paper describes a week-long summer camp program that has been running since the summer of 2021 as a collaboration between the engineering department and local science museum. The camp, The Great Engineering Bake Off, sets daily engineering learning themes to baking/food-related challenges (like its TV show counterpart) that rising 3rd-5th grade campers complete with a partner. The goals of the camp are to introduce young people to engineering concepts in an accessible way that invites creativity, encourages teamwork, and promotes the idea that engineering is everywhere!

The daily engineering themes and associated primary baking challenges are described below:
Day 1: Engineering Units and Measurements- make your own measuring device to use in a secret recipe (sugar cookies).
Day 2: The Engineering Design Process- Ideate, Plan, Protype, Iterate through the creation of slice and bake cookies (2D image extruded through the cross-section of a cookie).
Day 3: Chemistry of Baking- discover how combining wheat flour and water create gluten, and the addition of sugar and yeast give rise to bread.
Day 4: Forces and Strength – create rice krispy treat beams, and chocolate-welded girders to test different beams/materials with a 3-point beam bending test.
Day 5: Food Fight Catapult- design a food catapult, with only the provided materials, capable of completing 5 challenges: marshmallow distance, cheese ball catch, animal cracker accuracy, design flexibility (random food items like slice of bread and jello), and hitting a moving target (the camp leader).

Along with the main baking challenges, students are also introduced to 3D printing via a pancake printer and designing their own cookie cutters throughout the week during baking/food rest-cooling times.