ROGERS — Scientific solutions through teamwork and compromise are the goals of 60 students attending Camp Invention where they are looking for a method of sending lost foreign rubber ducks safely back to their home countries.
Camp Invention provides an avenue for interested students to learn about science and apply their knowledge to hands-on activities. Third- through fifth-graders in the Rogers School District are in camp this week at Bonnie Grimes Elementary School.
Jennifer Little, assistant principal of Grimes and camp director, said Camp Invention is based on inquiry.
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Camp Invention
To learn more about Camp Invention visit www.campinvention.org.
“I think it’s very valuable for our kids,” she said. “Science instruction sometimes doesn’t hold the importance during the school day because we have math and reading and all those other things. I think this is a good way to get students interested in science so that it’s more valuable later.”
The camp’s main project is building a duck launcher from the broken electronics the students brought to camp, Little said.
“It’s cool, they’re learning how these machines work,” said Ryan Quintana, a Grimes teacher. “They get to explore the different machines. They’re learning how VCRs, game systems and computers work.”
When they weren’t in Quintana’s module, the students use arts and crafts items and turn them into solutions to real world problems, Little said.
In the “Cache Dash” module led by Gail Undernehr, an Eastside Elementary School teacher, students worked to solve the real problem of an island in Singapore running out of land for its growing population. The students on the project modeled the island to scale and planned underground networks as well as auxiliary islands for housing.
“They’re all doing a great job, and the ideas have been phenomenal,” she said. “One of my students came up to me and he told me when he’s older he’s going to watch the news for the problem he was working on. He said ‘I think our solution will be it.’ It’s great, they’re all so sure.”
In an ecosystem module led by Ryan Finley, a Grace Hill Elementary School teacher, students used paper plates and red putty to learn how plate tectonics in the Earth’s crust collided with magma to form land masses. Next, they learned about seismographs, which monitor the Earth’s tremors, and had to come up with a seismograph prototype.
One group used a coffee tin, duct tape and string to create a seismograph.
“They’ll learn duct tape won’t work, but this is Camp Invention,” Finley said.
Little said the students at the camp have been enthusiastic.
“I heard we were going to make a huge science fair project,” said Nick Fulton, 11, a Bellview Elementary student. “When I heard ‘catapult’, I was like ‘yeah, that’s what I want to do’.”
This is the second year Camp Invention has been held in Rogers, Little said.
“When I came last year, my mom kind of forced me into it because she told me how much fun it was going to be,” said Marion Dunlap, 10, a Westside Elementary student. “So I took a shot at it, and I was like ‘this is awesome’.”
The students will showcase their completed duck launchers at 2 p.m. Friday afternoon at the school.
“The thing that is the best, is we can actually make something that can help the world,” said Nick Fulton.