Students in Johnson County will have the opportunity to keep their brains active after the school year with a variety of summer camps, which can help students improve their reading skills and brainstorm inventions.
Summer Cub Quest at Franklin schools, which is not limited to Franklin students, has a variety of academic offerings, such as robotics, “Exploding Science,” which involves experiments to produce chemical reactions, “Learning Spanish through Music and Food,” for which students learn Spanish songs and eat dishes from Spanish-speaking countries, and “Lights, Camera, Action STEM,” as students will participate in science, technology, engineering and math activities inspired by movies.
Having extra time for academic activities in the summer gives instructors greater freedom in what activities they can have students do, said Katie Smith, the camp’s program director who is also the principal of Union Elementary School.
“We wanted an enrichment opportunity for kids in the summer,” Smith said. “It’s an opportunity to get kids involved and explore things they might not get to during the school year. A third, fourth or fifth grader wouldn’t have the opportunity to learn Spanish through food.”
The camp began last year with 70 participants and this year has about twice as many offerings, with a total of 17 classes for varying age groups. Exploding science, for example, is offered for students exiting third and fourth grade, robotics is offered for students exiting third through sixth grade and basics of swimming is offered for students exiting kindergarten through sixth grade.
Students can also use their creative side in the “trash to treasures” course, which uses recycling for art.
“If you have things you turn them into something new,” fifth grader Ella Hurley said. “We made a milk carton into a bird feeder.”
While students enjoy themselves at the camp, that excitement for learning carries over to the classroom, Smith said.
“It definitely ensures kids are reading and listening no matter what course they’re in,” Smith said. “They’re able to follow directions and get excited to learn something new.”
At Center Grove and V.O. Isom elementary schools, Camp Invention, which is offered across the country by the National Inventors Hall of Fame, includes robotics, oceanography, farming and invention. The camp, which Greenwood schools have hosted for about 15 years, has a different theme each year for its invention module. Last year had a superhero theme, for which students invented objects superheroes could use to defeat villains, said JoAnn Hurt, the director of the camp at Isom Elementary.
Students also created miniature “smart homes” that were technologically advanced and robots they could design to look like pets, Hurt said.
Fifth grader Lucy Pflum created a robotic dog last year and enjoyed building a mini mansion from recycled materials, she said.
“We got to take old recycled things like toilet paper tubes, fabrics, thing you’d find around the house or at Goodwill and put those in and made tiny clothes,” Pflum said. “We talked about solar panels and solar energy, not produced by coal or fossil fuels. We also talked about what we can do to create more clean water for a home without wasting it.”
Students can also take part in the farm tech module, working with robotics to figure out how to clean up polluted land for farming and the deep sea mystery module, for which students can design equipment that could explore the deep sea, Hurt said.
Academic summer camps can also help students who may need an extra boost. The Warrior Reading Camp for Clark-Pleasant schools’ second and third graders is by invitation only, and provides a way for students who may be slightly behind grade level in their reading skills to catch up during the summer in an environment that has students looking forward to the summer lessons, said Bethany Guilfoy, the camp’s director.
“We try and keep a highly enthusiastic environment,” Guilfoy said. “We’re doing a lot of movement and dramatic play and things we don’t have time for during the school year that help build fluency. The fun they have reading is helping them read.”
Unlike with summer school, students aren’t mandated to attend, but attendance is highly encouraged for those invited. Because students get to perform on subjects they are interested in, such as a production piece involving “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” and have outdoor time mixed in, students are engaged, which translates to results during the school year, she said.
“Kids have shown some really good growth,” Guilfoy said. “We get feedback from teachers. They notice an increase in confidence and improved fluency and comprehension.”
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Summer Cub Quest
Where: Franklin schools
When: June 24 – 28
Who: Franklin elementary and intermediate students
Cost: $120 to $225
Register: franklinschools.org/cubquest
Camp Invention
When and where: June 3 – 7 at Center Grove Elementary School and June 17 – 21 at Isom Elementary.
Cost: $230
Register: invent.org
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