Looking into the pit of slime, wherein unknown threats may lurk, the inventors steeled their will and thrust their hands into the pits of doom.
Now, the slime may have been contained in a kiddie pool, the threatening creatures may have been plastic, and the inventors may have still been in elementary school; but the children of St. Vincent de Paul were facing challenges many adults have never attempted.
Inside the Family Success Center, Camp Invention had begun.
Camp Invention is an interactive weeklong camp run through the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
From the time children walk into the Family Success Center in the morning to the time they leave in the afternoon, they work on a number of projects that test their skills in problem solving. The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math)-focused camp has the children doing everything from predator prey simulations to taking apart computers and cell phones.
“My favorite part was when we took apart different items,” seven (“and a half!) -year-old Jada Anthony enthused. “There were lots of different pieces. Did you see the inside of my take-apart? It had green things and super glue to sticky on the batteries, and we used pliers to take out the batteries and put different pieces into bags to save them.
“It was an old radio. I’m going to turn it into a girl robot, using the inside and outside of my take apart. It’s going to bed a girl robot,” Jada added, “because girls can really invent anything!”
Submitted by Emma Bornschein, Marketing and Communications Intern with SVDP.
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