For Wendi Hunter, Camp Invention is all about helping kids explore, think and build in new ways.
“Parents and families donate materials. They take and decide how they want to use it, what they can use it for. It’s fun at the end of the week to see everything that they create and come up with,” said Hunter, the camp’s director and a fourth-grade teacher at Wyland Elementary School.
About 60 kindergartners through fifth-graders in Hampton Township School District attended this year’s camp, held at Wyland. The camp, which lasts throughout the week of June 26, is a program offered through the National Inventors Hall of Fame. It’s designed to help students learn more about STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — during the summer break, and costs $280.
The students rotated through four modules during the week. In one of the modules, students create a mini pop-up business using cardboard and straws. They make business plans and learn how to budget.
In another module, students build robots that mimic sounds and dance. There’s also an activity where the kids construct light-up party hats and plan their own party.
Cole Armstrong, 10, said he enjoyed the skateboard station the most, where students made mini skate parks to learn about physics and engineering.
“You’re learning about how to skateboard, and different tricks, but you also get to build something so you can do more of those and learn more about those tricks,” said Armstrong, a fifth-grader at Central Elementary School.
Alongside teachers were seven high school volunteers who helped run the camp. One of the volunteers, Sienna Lasek, 16, said she enjoys seeing the kids work together.
“It’s just fun to meet the different kids to see them grow up, because I see kids multiple years, even though they’re not always in my group, it’s just fun because kids get attached,” Lasek said.
Hunter added that, as a language arts teacher, it’s exciting to explore STEM subjects and she hopes to bring some of the experience into her classroom.
“My favorite part is seeing something that is so outside of my comfort zone and being forced to kind of learn about things that are outside my comfort zone,” she said. “Even as the teacher it’s kind of cool to see.”
