Everyone learns at Bethel Park’s Camp Invention

Teachers still are learners.

“I never knew who invented the Bose speaker,” Melinda Romito said. “I never thought about it.”

She discovered the answer while serving as an instructor for, appropriately enough, Camp Invention.

An educational program of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, the camp took place in Bethel Park the week of July 10 at Neil Armstrong Middle School, where Romito teaches fifth-grade science and language arts.

“Camp Invention is a positive experience for so many children, because it gives them an opportunity to collaborate with their peers,” she said. “They get to be creative and inventive, and they get to do things that they wouldn’t have done otherwise.”

For example, the kindergartners through sixth-graders attending this summer’s program had the opportunity to view vital components inside a small robot.

“Oftentimes they’re told, ‘You can’t open that. You can’t take that apart.’ But they really enjoy being able to,” Romito said.

The camp featured four activity modules, and in one called Mimic-Bot, youngsters worked with robots that have the ability to make talking sounds, by way of miniature recording devices and, of course, Bose speakers.

“It can mimic the students, essentially,” Romito explained. “The students get to see how it works on the inside, and then they also get to create their own design on the outside to make it unique.”

‘They know more than they think they do’

Other activity modules Camp Invention 2023:

• Catching Air, with campers designing and building diminutive skate parks while learning about physics, engineering and art.

• Invention Celebration, in which youngsters take on the role of event planners and make their own musical instruments.

• Pop-Up Venture, addressing the nuances of businesses that are set up in a temporary location.

“Throughout the process they discuss things like getting a business license from City Hall, working with companies to develop ads. They work with the health department if they’re selling food,” Brad Kszastowski, a Bethel Park High School teacher and Pop-Up Venture instructor, said.

“The cool thing, though, is they know more than they think they do,” he continued. “When you start mentioning examples like a farmers market and people going there, they’ll say, ‘Oh, yeah. I’ve been to the farmers market before.’ So they can relate to it pretty quickly.”

Once students pass the Camp Invention participation age, they can become leaders in training as seventh- through ninth-graders. Alivia Alston, 12, is among those who graduated, so to speak, into the new role.

“In fourth grade, we got a flyer where it’s like: Camp Invention! Invent things! Hooray!” she recalled. “So that summer, I went to my mom and said, ‘Hey, can I try this out?’ And she’s like, ‘Sure.’”

Alivia, who is going into seventh grade at Independence Middle School, continues to enjoy the camp experience.

“Working with the kids is so much fun because you get to help them make their stuff,” she said. “And at this young age, they’re just so cute.”

‘They’re all very well-behaved’

Once students reach ninth grade, they can remain with the program as leadership interns, which soon-to-be Bethel Park High School freshman Samy Metzler, 14, starting in that capacity this summer.

“I’ve been doing Camp Invention since it opened. I was in third grade when the camp first started,” she said, when then-William Penn Elementary School teacher Laura Huth launched the endeavor.

“Ever since then, I’ve loved doing it, and I always wanted to come back to be a leader. And I loved working with the kids, so I thought this would be a great opportunity,” Samy said. “I like building the connections with the kids and seeing their creativity show, and all the inventions that they make throughout the week.”

Lidia Romito, 16, who will be a Canon-McMillan High School junior, is another leadership intern who is all about fostering youngsters’ creativity. And as far as she’s concerned, they appreciate the effort.

“They’re all very well-behaved,” she said. “They’re awesome.”

In her second year as a leadership intern, she was able to ride to camp each day with her teacher mom.

“She went to Appalachia last year in addition to helping out at Camp Invention,” Melinda said about Lidia. “This year, that trip for helping families build houses and this camp were at the same time. I said, you have to make a decision. You can’t do both.’ And she chose Camp Invention.”

Plenty of other youngsters had the same idea: Camp was filled to capacity this year, according to Huth, who now teaches at George Washington Elementary School. She has served as director since its 2016 founding.

Kszastowski has been an instructor the whole time, including a virtual camp in 2020, as has Melinda Romito, minus a brief hiatus.

And this year, she learned that Amar Gopal Bose (1929-2013) invented the brand of speaker that bears his surname.

For more information, visit www.invent.org/programs/camp-invention.