Camp Invention at Ivy Tech offers kids a fun way to learn about sophisticated scientific concepts.
Take, for example, Amber Geller’s “Let’s Glow” module with kindergartners and first graders. The students each build glow boxes and then fill them with fiberoptic lights.
“We’re going to talk about bioluminescence, which is kind of a big word for these guys, since they’re 5,” Geller, a Terre Haute South teacher, said Monday.
Camp Invention, a summer STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) camp offered throughout the country, came to Ivy Tech this week, and 97 children from kindergarten through sixth grade did everything from play games to create their own.
Lyndsey Goldman, who has been director of the local Camp Invention for three years after previously teaching there for six or seven years, said, “What makes Camp Invention stand out from the other camps that are offered is all our teachers are certified teachers and the curriculum is certified curriculum.
“In a kindergarten room, you wouldn’t use some of those terms normally,” she added. “They’re exposing to them at such a young age some of the harder concepts in a fun way, and the kids never feel like they’re in school.”
She continued, “They’re building, they’re enjoying, they’re up out of their seats and not sitting all day. They’re constructing things and challenging their creativity and I don’t see a whole lot of that outside of things like this.”
Back at Geller’s “Let’s Glow” module, the fiberoptic lights show children how light reflects.
“Later in the week, we’ll build wire and circuits to put lights inside,” she said. “They’re getting ready to play with the lights to see what they can come up with.”
Deb Herdon is running the “Prototyping Studio” module.
“I teach English at Terre Haute South so this is my chance to work with little kids and science, which I like,” she said.
In the “Prototyping Studio” module, Herdon explained, “We ask, what is a tool and can tools be made better? They’re making little prototype inventions and they get to take them home in their toolbox.”
The module is patterned after a game show, she said.
“They’ll each make a little prototype — today, it will be a way to keep from hitting your finger when you’re hammering in a nail,” Herdon said. “Then we vote on whose was the most creative, whose was the cleverest, that sort of thing. … Then we try to improve them in the next round.”
Randy Spencer’s module is called “Operation Hydrodrop.”
“We’re talking about water — how to conserve it and how important it is,” said Spencer, a Honey Creek Middle School sixth-grade science teacher. His students dismantled little bots using reverse engineering to see how they work.
“We’re talking about how they would get different samples of water like in the ocean using this mechanism,” he said. “It’s to collect different samples and run tests and see the water and what kind of changes are occurring.”
“In the Game” is the module taught by Riley Elementary School fifth-grade instructor Allison Fulsom.
“We are creating our own sports game, and the goal is to show them that there are many different aspects to sports,” she said. “You don’t just have to be the athlete — you can be the inventor.
“They’re drawing inspiration from sports they already know and video games to create things in their heads,” she added. “We encourage them to be creative.”
Eva Blackburn and Ella Bush each conjured their individual variations on cornhole.
“We’re going to patent our games and at the end of the week, they’ll be able to take them home,” Fulsom said.
On Friday, Camp Invention will close out the week with an inventor showcase in which parents can see their children’s creations.
Robynn Cornelison, who has served as Camp Invention’s assistant director for 20 years, said she lives for the aha! moment when children’s faces light up upon grasping a new concept.
“It’s just really exciting when they finally get something, when they get exposed to a concept they wouldn’t normally get in a class, but it’s something they’re interested in — they get it, they run with it,” she said. “It’s the best part of teaching.”
© 2024 Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.