By Manal Saif
ITKAN students spent the summer building new skills in innovation, teamwork, design, programming, and CAD. Across the FLL, FTC, and FRC levels, students attended seven different programs: eight-week trainings, summer camps, and ten-day intensives, putting in a ton of hours to prepare for the season ahead.
The eight-week FLL and FTC/FRC trainings drew 90 students for a combined 224 hours of instruction. FLL students worked on problem solving, teamwork, block coding, and build logic. The FTC/FRC track focused on 3D design, engineering, and modeling, along with robot programming, debugging, and build logic.
The ten-day intensives brought in 42 students for 100 hours. The FLL intensive covered block coding, build logic, problem solving, and teamwork. The FTC/FRC intensive split into two tracks: CAD, covering 3D design, engineering, and modeling; and programming, covering robot code, problem solving, and build logic.
ITKAN also hosted several summer camps, reaching 50 students over 116 hours. At Innovation Camp, students were introduced to Scratch and Java programming and electrical wiring, and completed robotics challenges and science experiments. At Makers Camp, they learned 3D design fundamentals, robot design, and simple circuits, and attended daily Islamic lessons. At Ma’ruf Refugee Camp, students used FLL kits to learn the essentials of FLL robotics, from building a robot to coding it.
In total, ITKAN served nearly 200 students across 440 instructional hours.
Now those skills go to work. The 2026–27 FLL season, BIOGLOW, kicked off on August 14, and our students got started right away. Six FLL teams are building and coding their robots alongside their coaches and mentors. FTC students are sharpening their CAD and programming through design concepts and coding challenges from their coaches, while the FRC girls’ and boys’ teams rebuild robots from past seasons for off-season competitions. New students are getting their introduction to the season, with senior students and coaches leading the way.
