Summary: Back for its fourth year at Buckeye Career Center, Camp invention gives students entering 1-6 grade an opportunity to learn in a weeklong summer program that promotes math, science, teamwork and even a game or two of Dash, Dash, Dunk where participants are sure to get wet!
Area students entering grades 1-6 participated in Camp Invention, a weeklong day camp held at Buckeye Career Center at New Philadelphia June 27-July 1. This is the fourth year for the program in the region. The camp is officiated by Invent Now, Inc.
East Central Ohio ESC Director of Gifted Services, Michelle L. Watson directed the camp with the assistance of Teresa Grissom and Heather Watson, teachers from the Tuscarawas Valley Local Schools and Ryan Burrier, from Indian Valley High School. Joining the staff this year were camp counselors: Josh Goedel, Jessica Goedel, and Kylie Flickinger from Strasburg High School. Junior counselors were Madison Miller, from New Philadelphia schools, Shauna Cox, and Courtney Chaney from Conotton Valley schools. The regional program sponsor for camp this summer was American Electric Power (AEP).
The exciting, weeklong adventure in creativity immerses children in imaginative play that reinforces and supplements what they are learning in school in the subjects of science, technology, engineering, math, history and the arts. Children work together to seek innovative solutions to real world problems and sharpen critical 21st century learning skills such as teamwork and creative problem solving as they rotate through five modules each day that disguise learning as fun.
Weve been doing Camp Invention here since 2008. I hope we will be back next year, too, said Michelle Watson. The kids have a lot of fun and they learn some important skills that will help prepare them later in life. We spend a whole week here. The kids bring a packed lunch. Its a great summer activity. We have 56 students this year 12 of whom are returning students.
Camp Invention has been around since 1990, said Watson. The program has grown to include more than 1,100 school partnerships in 49 states.
The Camp Invention program was created in partnership with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, which continues to support Invent Nows mission to inspire creativity and inventive thinking in children of all ages.
Camp Invention participant Cameron Johnson will be entering 5th grade at Dover East and South in the fall. We are making club houses out of up-cycled materials like cardboard and other paper. We have to follow regulations. Every day there is a question of the day like how many feet does a snail have or what was the name of the machine used by the Germans to send and decipher messages during WWII? The most fun has been making the club houses and taking apart our inventions and creating Rube Goldberg stuff out of them, said Johnson.
All Camp Invention programs include a module in which children participate in high-energy games that challenge their minds and bodies, as well as a renowned invention module, where children up-cycle pieces and parts of discarded household appliances and other donated materials to create new machines.
We are split up into groups depending on what grade we are in, said Johnson. There is the blue group for the little kids, a green group for the mid-range kids and an orange group for the older kids. I am in the orange group.
On Friday the students participated in the module, Bounce! An Atomic Journey. Students learned about different polymers as long chains of repeating molecules. Instructor Ryan Burrier said, Our goal was to learn about the polymers and to make bouncy balls. The kids used special compounds, a mold and even the heat from their own hands to form the balls.
The Camp Invention program teaches children academic content like economics and circuits and it aids in getting them to think creatively about solving problems they encounter. The students learn that science can be fun and they develop self-confidence to think like scientists and inventors.
For more information about next years camp or obtaining scholarship information, call camp Director Michelle L. Watson at 330-340-1580.
