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Camp Invention continues to inspire creativity

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Contributed by: David Eick on 6/13/2008

This past week, you might have thought that all the kids in town were out on summer break! However, 111 elemenatry students from across the city gathered at Canon Elementary to continue their learning with creative science projects and inventions.

For the fourth year in a row, teachers from Canon and other D-12 elementary schools led students in the Camp Invention program, a national recognized science enrichment program. On Tuesday, a group of students outside the school strung together pieces of hollow foam pipe insulation and sent a gold ball rolling down their invention to test teamwork and better definethe forces of gravity. Another group worked on discovering which material filters water best and explored aquifers in "Saving Sludge City", and yet another group plowed through the "recycle pile" looking for more material to build their part of "Art Park".

Students in the I Can Invent class worked on taking apart used and broken appliances, electronics and machines, learning about diodes, capicitors, springs, gears,levers and much more. By the end of the week, students in this class worked in teams to build and test water balloon launchers. In some cases, they also built water ballon smashers.

The camp featured a small leader to camper ratio, and included 10 high school and college age group leaders or camp counselors from the Cheyenne Mountain community. Although amajority of campers came from Cheyenne Mountain School District 12, some came from Widefield and as far away as the Academy, Monument, and Falcon school districts. A few campers were also from The Colorado Springs School and Pauline Memorial Catholic School, as well as several charter schools.

Although to an outsider, the entire week's program might have appeared chaotic, students and their leaders worked to keep things in order. The students rotated through a tight schedule of five classes or modules each day, taught by science-minded teachers from Canon, Skyway, Pinon Valley and Gold Camp Elementaries. These teachers will be compensated as independent contractors through Camp Invention's national office in Ohio.

Art, the environment and space travel were among the highlights of this year's Camp Invention Imagine program, which ran from Monday through Friday. The curriculum was developed and provided by the National Inventor's Hall of Fame., which also provided most of the materials the teachers needed to run their classes and experiments. Other materials and snacks were purchased locally by the Camp Site Director .

Although the Camp Invention program has been in District 12 for several years now,led by director David Eick and the Canon staff, it has been around the country even longer. The National Invetors Hallof Fame hosted the first camp in 1990. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, one of the camp's natural sponsors, provides additional guidance and financial support. More than 60,000 students in 48 states across the country participated in Camp Invention programs last summer.

"Camp Invention is the perfect program for local communities," said Regional Coordinator Annette Phillips. "The curricula we offer each summer provides a funa dn creative educational experiences in the community where a child lives. Local educators put their own spin on the program so that each of the camps is slightly different. We value the fact that we can offer that kind of flexibility."

That flexibility allowed Eick and his staff to set up a room where a group of students had to "Save Sludge City", rebuilding and cleaning a polluted city with filters they invented to extract clean water from sludge. In another room, a group of students were perfecting their physics skills in a program called M.A.R.S., an acronym for "Moving at Rocket Speed." Using balloons, recycled items and other common devices found in any home, they invented vehicles that would use different forms of thrust- from air power to electrical power - to move so they could plan and execute a fantasy trip to Mars.

Perhaps one of the best parts of Camp Invention was that each student got to spend part of each day in each of five clasrooms, broadening their knowledge of science and its many practical applications in their world.

Science knowledge and skills are certianly imporant for students in this day and age, but Camp Invention also helped students discover that science can also be lots of fun! Applying their creativity and science knowledge may lead some of them to become inventors for the long haul.

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David Eick

Colorado Springs , CO

David Eick has posted 6 stories and 0 comments since joining on 3/3/2007. David Eick 's average story rating is 5.

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