Discovery Camp

Thanks to a generous group of donors at our 2018 Auction, the Education & Programs Department was able to put on an additional, fourth week of summer camp named “Inventor’s Workshop”! During this week of Discovery Camp, we welcomed 16 children between the ages of 7-12 to partake in a wide range of activities that your donations made possible. We were also able to offer two campers full scholarships during this week.

Highlights of the week included Lego robots, Ozobots, 3D Doodle Pens and Makey Makeys. We utilized well-known Lego Mindstorm kits to build robots and program them to go through an obstacle course. Campers also had the option of adding sensors to make their robots more versatile and tinkered around to see what else their robots could do. Ozobots are small and easy-to-use robots that detect color codes. Campers drew their own codes for the Ozobots to follow but then advanced their skills by coding on a web-based application and programming the Ozobots. 3D Doodle Pens (think hot glue gun, but instead of hot glue, a plastic filament, and nowhere near as hot!) was the huge favorite by all the campers! They loved how easy it was to draw and create a three-dimensional shape or figure.

Campers also produced glasses, dinosaurs, jewelry, and more. Makey Makeys are a type of circuit board that when connected to conductive materials to create a closed circuit, can take the place of a keyboard. This tool allowed campers to transform a regular keyboard on a Chromebook with everyday conductive materials. Campers used web-based applications to play a piano, bongos and even Tetris with tin foil, play dough and paperclips.

The week was filled with imagination, inventive and creative minds. These activities supplemented our typical camp activities really well and encourage a lot of teamwork, collaboration, and communication with our campers. We are hoping that these 21st-century skills that they’ve honed at camp, will carry with them. Thank you for helping to make this week memorable for our campers and our staff. We have hopes of including some of our new materials into other programs we offer and of course, future Discovery Camp programs.