Learning is Fun at North Adams Summer Science Camp
 Children in the Science Camp at Brayton School build aerodynamic rockets on Wednesday with Peg LeGendre, K-12 education coordinator at the MIT Museum in Cambridge. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Last week, a group of aspiring scientists were using dry spaghetti and tape to build the tallest structure they could that support a marshmallow.
This week, they were learning the ins and outs of aerodynamics with the use of homemade air-propelled rockets.
Those are pretty typical days at Camp Invention, this year's summer science program at Brayton Elementary School. Brayton bustles with activity when the camp is in session 8 to 3, Monday through Thursday, from July 6 to Aug. 6.
"I call Science Camp my education utopia. It's creative, it's hands-on and kids are happy and relaxed," said coordinator Noella Carlow, who's run 21st Century Learning Center and After-School programs since 2001.
Upon arriving, the 300 campers "board" Air NAPS (for North Adams Public Schools) and travel round the globe to discover the how, who, when and where of many inventions, such as the printing press, hot air balloons, the microwave and video games.
Measuring 12 feet long and with a wing span of 12 feet, Air NAPS was made by children in the After School Program, which like the Science Camp is based at Brayton Elementary School and is open to North Adams schoolchildren. Air NAPS is currently on the "runway," where it is in plain sight of those who enter Brayton's lobby.
Campers learn to become inventors, working in teams with their peers.
"But they don't know they are learning," said Carlow, who each fall begins the process of planning a theme that she thinks will excite the children. "In addition to academic, there are behavioral, social and emotional components to the program."
Ella Tawes, a second-grader, is enthusiastic about "coming up with inventions. It's really fun and I like my team. Today we are inventing something to hold up a poster board. We can hold the board up but it's not steady."
In their role as camp counselors, teachers encourage campers to fix or rebuild their inventions until they achieve the desired result.
Makayla Bushika, from Sullivan School, is a happy first-time camper.
"I really like it," she said, as she smiled ear to ear last week. "We do science projects in a group. We made lava lamps and I took mine home to my mother and she liked it. I also like writing in a journal and swimming."
Swimming at Martha Lindley Park in Williamstown and Windsor Lake are among the outdoor activities that campers most enjoy, according to teachers. "Joe didn't want to get out of the water," a teacher was heard saying when campers were returning from a field trip.
Campers hike at Natural Bridge, visit the Berkshire Museum and North Adams Greenhouse, and ice skate at a nearby rink. Last Thursday, the visited North Adams Museum of Science and History.
Carlow said the Science Camp is funded by a federal 21st Century Community Learning Center grant. A requirement of the grant is that teachers must do four professional development days with workshops related, for the most part, to their role at Science Camp. There are 11 teachers at Camp Invention plus a number of qualified assistants.
Following the lead of a dance teacher in the theater and creative movement class, first-graders burn up some of the energy children seem to never run out of.
And who is more energetic than toddlers? Cascade teacher Elizabeth Ferris takes on the demanding role of "camp counselor" to preschool 3- and 4-year-olds within the autism spectrum and delayed in speech and in language who attend the camp from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
 Building a poster paper rocket at Brayton School. |
"We give them one-on-one support and small group activity on a social level," Ferris said. To tie in with the theme of Camp Invention, the preschoolers build inventions with Legos, and visit classrooms where teams of older children are creating things.
"We want our children to learn work habits as a team," said Carlow, pointing to the need to prepare children for a fulfilling future as early as their pre-K days. The preparation for our children to graduate with the skills to become productive citizens begins in preK in which they learn what it means to become a team player as well as acquire skills in STEM (science technology, engineering and math).
"The goal is for our students to become skilled in problem solving — the learning style is project based — hands on in nature."
Hands-on learning and learning to work as a team, makes learning fun for campers.
"Everyday we start by building confidence, then we move on to a challenge," one teacher said.
Campers in Grades 4 through 6 were challenged by Jesse Billingham and Peg LeGendre from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Museum in Cambridge to invent aerodynamic rockets on Wednesday. The children learned about structure and fins for the rockets and then launched them by jumping on an empty 2-litre soda bottle to propel them with air.
Three campers were unknowingly preparing to meet that challenge last week. As a team, they were inventing a rocket ship. Though none of them was from the same school, they behaved as if they were longtime friends, and laughed when asked why they decided to invent a rocket ship. One of the boys replied, "We got the idea when I was singing 'Rocket Ship.' "
Camp Invention will fittingly come to an end with a bus trip to Connecticut Science Center, where once again, campers' learning will be disguised as fun.
Tags: Brayton School, school program, science, STEM,
