With the theme "Illuminate," this year's Camp Invention is shining the light on science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, for 110 elementary school students from Aiken and neighboring counties.
For students entering first through sixth grade, the weeklong day camp at USC Aiken's Ruth Patrick Science Education Center fosters innovation and creativity in a fun atmosphere while helping children build self-esteem, teamwork, persistence and goal-setting skills.
"We are thrilled to be offering Camp Invention to students in our community and developing skills that ensure bright futures for our participants," said John Hutchens, director of Special Programs for about 18 years at the Ruth Patrick Center. "We are molding inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs and instilling creative problem-solving, which sets this camp apart from the rest."
Using their imaginations and their inventive minds, the children participate in real-world, problem-solving challenges, build things, take things apart and explore different types of technology in five different modules, which the young students rotate through each day.
A certified teacher teaches each module with help from counselors in training, who are former campers, and leadership interns, who are educators or students of education at USCA or other universities.
In the Next Level Gamers module, students took apart old cellphones, obsolete computers or unused household gadgets to create prototypes, or mock-ups, of video games.
Creating variations on classic games, students in the Motion, Obstacles, Variety, Excitement module used physical activity to improve academic performance. In KartWheel, students earned points to spend on mobile devices, which the campers will build and then race through an obstacle course.
Children in the Inducted module competed to build the highest tower from recycled newspapers, and in Design Studio: Illuminate, the campers designed and created mock-ups of inventions of their choice using their talents and imagination and recycled materials that included cardboard boxes, plastic milk jugs and old wooden tennis rackets.
"In here, it's free-choice invention," said Beth Eberhard, who taught at Aiken Elementary before coming to work at the Ruth Patrick Center. "They have come up with some of the most imaginative inventions that you have ever seen. We've had everything from jet packs to video games to inventions to put your baby to sleep."
In addition to creating their prototypes, the children learn about inventors, what it takes to become an inventor and trademarks, copyrights and patents along the way.
Sponsored by the National Inventors Hall of Fame with locations around the country, Camp Invention offers children activities that mirror the motto of the Ruth Patrick Science Education Center: to infuse the love of science, technology, engineering and math.
"We want to infuse that love of those ideas because we need an educated workforce," Hutchens said. "We work with the educators to improve their skills in the classroom, and we bring the kids in as well to give them that spark and start them in the right direction."
A native of Aiken, Larry Wood is a general assignment reporter. He joined the Aiken Standard in September 2014.
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