Q&A with E3 Robotics Executive Director Brian Boehler
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E3 Robotics Center in Elkhart is launching four hands-on STEM summer camps for students in kindergarten through sixth grade, featuring programs in LEGO Discovery, LEGO Spike Essentials, LEGO Robotics and VEX IQ Robotics.
This year, the nonprofit has partnered with the new NIBCO Interactive Museum and Ivy Tech Community College’s Elkhart campus to host the camps, offering students a chance to connect classroom concepts with real-world applications in science and technology.
Inside INdiana Business spoke with Brian Boehler, E3 Robotics’ executive director, about what makes these camps different, the power of local partnerships and how kids can keep growing in STEM long after summer ends.
What is E3 Robotics Center all about?
We are a 501(c)(3) focused on STEM education for K-12 kids in our community. Right now, Elkhart County, St. Joe County and southern Michigan are our target areas and where a lot of our students are coming from. Our summer camps are really targeted at our kindergarten through sixth grade students for this year. Our STEM education classes offer kids hands-on experience, giving them a glimpse into what that looks like. If they’re excited, then they can pursue some of those programs a little bit more in-depth here at the center, through some of their school-based programs or other programs in the community.
What’s new in 2025 compared to past years?
We have a couple new partnerships. This year, we have a partnership with NIBCO. They are hosting three out of the four summer camps for us at their new NIBCO Interactive Museum. So it ties in really well with what the kids are doing. They get to see how some of those STEM things relate to a real-world application throughout the museum as well as do some exploration there.
The other partnership we have, which is exciting, is with Ivy Tech. We’ll be having a camp over at Ivy Tech’s Elkhart campus. They have their Flex Lab, which is all about applying STEM components to real world STEM-based careers as well. So the students will get to see some what the next step in education looks like and how it connects to jobs that might excite them here in Elkhart County.
Boehler talks about two new partnerships for the 2025 summer camps.
How do you design the camps to match different ages and abilities?
That’s something that we’ve crafted over the past 10 years or so with our programming in-house. A lot of that is working with LEGO components, FIRST LEGO League and even Vex Robotics. Those elements have allowed us to craft some of those age appropriate programs that are aligned with state and national standards. That really helps us to make sure that the kids are getting the foundational skills that they need, pushing into critical thinking and problem solving as well.
Those are just two of the programs that we use as part of our competitive programming. We’ve taken those same concepts and skills that the students would learn throughout a whole season, down to a week-long summer camp for them to really get hands on and jump right in.
Can campers continue with robotics during the school year?
Yes. So we’ll have a couple different open houses across the summer. We’ll be posting the dates on our website and on Facebook. That’s where people can come in and learn about the programs that we have to offer kindergarten all the way through 12th grade. For our younger students, kindergarten through third grade, their season usually runs about 10 weeks through the fall semester. Then for fourth grade through 12th grade, their season will start in August and continue till about March. We make sure they know that this is a competitive team. We treat it very much like any other type of sport would. They’re coming in two to three times a week, getting hands on and building that robot in order to go to these competitions and compete alongside other teams.
Are there any standout success stories from past campers?
One for me, Alex. He started when I was still a counselor-in-training for one of our camps during the summer. He was very hands-on about inventing and problem solving. Then he came up through our robotics program, went to Purdue for engineering and now works a STEM job down in the Indianapolis area.
We’ve had Brianna, who came in on the autism spectrum and wasn’t really sure where she kind of fit in. She came into her own, found confidence through our STEM-based programming, and then went on to win Miss Teen Bristol. She won on her platform of autism awareness and bringing STEM into autism spaces to improve the overall learning and accessibility for STEM.
So STEM is for everyone. All we have to do is knock down the barriers that are limiting those students to get to a STEM program. Things like these summer camps and these partnerships are a huge way for us to take down those barriers and get to those students that really need access to STEM-based programming so they can find a way to shine and grow on their own.
What role do community partnerships play in making these camps possible?
I would say community partnership is huge for us. E3 stands for “Explore, Educate and Engage.” And for us, that engagement component is huge, engaging the community outside of our four walls. Because we know that we can only impact so many students here within the center within a short time frame. So how can we take that out and partner with the libraries, with Boys and Girls Club, with Tolson Center and more? We go over there and do workshops and camps for them and then set them up for future programming.
Are scholarships or financial aid available for families?
Yes. NIBCO is doing a reduced rate for all of their employees’ kids that are interested. Then, if you contact us, we do have some other scholarship opportunities available for any of those summer camps as well.
Do you see these camps expanding in the future?
Absolutely. Each year has offered new opportunities, especially coming out of the pandemic. That’s really kind of reshaped how people think about summer camps. Partnerships, the additional age levels and additional camp options are exploding and continuing to grow. So as we start to see some of these different grade groups start to hit capacity, that’s how we know where we need to expand. This summer for students that are interested in joining competitive robotics teams for middle school and high school, we’re actually doing Tuesday night classes to get them engaged with the current students that we have in-house, get them excited and start to teach them a little bit before the fall semester.