Camp Invention

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I am Camp Mom this year, and I must recommend this camp! It is an academic, science-based camp that we've attend for the last three years. I don't receive anything if anyone signs up; I (and my kids) just really love this camp!

 

Camp Invention isn’t just your average summer camp! In this exciting program, children are immersed in a weeklong experience, where the fun of imaginative play leads them through inquiry-based activities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), as well as in history and the arts.

 

Renowned for the opportunity it extends to elementary-aged children to explore the unknown, tinker with ideas, and satisfy an innate sense of curiosity, the Camp Invention program provides a safe, creative outlet for them to experience extended summer learning taught by local educators, which builds on their year-long studies. Each day, children rotate through five integrated modules that employ creative thinking to solve real-world challenges. Working together, they learn vital 21st century life skills such as problem solving and teamwork through hands-on activities designed to be informative and fun.

 

“We’re getting to the root of innovation by providing motivation to learn, create and excel – particularly in the critical areas of math and science,” says Michael J. Oister, President of Invent Now Kids. America is currently facing a critical talent gap in these areas, known as the international “language” of innovation. The country’s economic and productive future depends on how well we educate our children and youth. The CampInvention program strives to meet the need for innovators and inventors by helping children understand that science is everywhere and fostering “whole system” thinkers.

 

Since its inception in 1990, the Camp Invention program, the premier program of the nonprofit Invent Now Kids, has grown to include nearly 1,500 sites in 49 states. In 2009, more than 65,000 children participated nationwide.

 

Ensuring fresh, timely curricula each year, Invent Now Kids has put together the SPARK program, where children not only decipher codes and build solutions to puzzling riddles to prevent chaos from occurring in the Cracking the Codes: The Curious Cypher Club™ module, but also become storm chasers and perform experiments to inspire the creation of an uber-powered computer chip in the NanoChasers™ module and explore the most spectacular and inventive survival traits of the planet’s wildest animals in the WiLD!™ module. Children will also work with real tools to take apart a machine, and then use its guts and gadgets to build a new invention in the I Can Invent: Edison’s Workshop™ module and discover the science of sports and balls by investigating dissected sports balls in the Bounce™ module.

 

This camp is held nationwide and you can sign up at campinvention.org. There are scholarships available based on need.