Camp Invention
BUTLER TWP — In a room where children were ripping up old VCRs and cassette players, twins Elizabeth and Caroline Simms were paying homage to the Mother of All Invention — necessity.
Elizabeth hates putting away laundry.
Caroline can't stand getting guts on her hands when she squashes ants.
So Wednesday at Camp Invention at McQuistion Elementary, the two 9-year-olds from Center Township Elementary were trying to find solutions to their problems. Elizabeth wanted to make an old telephone sort clothes into piles that a robotic arm would then put away.
"There are six buttons for six piles," she said.
Caroline sketched her invention on graph paper. Her old weed trimmer eventually will be an ant squasher.
"Really, it will squish any bug," Caroline said.
The inventions didn't have to function by the end of the camp on Friday. The purpose was to get students entering third through sixth grades thinking about science, technology, engineering and math concepts.
Dana Leyland, assistant director, said the inventions are made using parts brought from home and other recyclables.
Beth Cooper, camp director and Butler School District teacher, ran the eighth camp at the school. Students from all elementary schools in the district were eligible for the camp.
The days began with time at base camp with the cheer and camp song. They also started off with a beginning activity such as building the tallest structure possible using uncooked spaghetti noodles and marshmallows. The students returned to base camp three more times during the day for snacks and lunch.
After base camp ended, the students split into groups and went into activity rooms where they worked on weeklong projects.
The groups, Cooper said, were named after inventors like Milton Hershey and William Morrison, creator of cotton candy. Leyland said the students learned about the inventors and others.In the "Fly Jack and Jill" room Wednesday, students put together parachutes from plastic bags and paper cups that were to be tested later when they were dropped from the top of the stairs. Additionally, by the end of the week, each group was to have created a super hero with super powers from recyclables.At the back of the room, the beginning of their creations were kept under wraps.A few rooms down, groups learned about the world travels of the Vikings. To help the Vikings, the students created from tin foil and paper plates vessels that had to sail across the ocean. The ocean in this case was an inflatable baby pool."We were in Norway and Finland and somewhere else," said Elizabeth."Yeah, Sweden," offered Caroline.Other travels included Greenland, which Elizabeth said is really covered in ice, and now New England.And, in the halls, students tested out Land Sled Extreme. It's a contest among the students to build a sled that would get them through an obstacle course the fastest.Wednesday, it was a lot of trial and error."The Exterminators" were trying to decide how to incorporate a 5-foot inflatable pink raft into their invention. Another group connected wheels to a cardboard box, but when a student sat in the sled, the dowel rod axles snapped.Cooper explained to the students that what they were learning will be incorporated into their school lessons in the fall.At week's end, the students were to share everything they learned during a friends and family day.
