Camp Invention Inspires Imagination At Daffodil Valley Elementary

The 55 students spanning first through sixth grades who were attending Camp Invention this week at Daffodil Valley Elementary School in Sumner are doing some amazing things.

"I really wanted to impress my dad and I made an engine for a car that would actually really work," Jameson, an entering 2nd grader at Emerald Hills Elementary School shared while figuring out how best to propel a rubber duck across the classroom.   

Jameson and his fellow 1st and 2nd graders were tasked Thursday with creating 'duck chucking devices' to help their ducks fly home in a mock project that incorporated some physics, material science and much imagination.

Utilizing a seemingly endless supply of recyclable material donated by parents along with some standard materials provided by the national Camp Invention program, the students created modified slingshots out of yard sticks, swings from container lids and string and more.

Camp Invention is a week-long summer program that is designed to inspire an interest and passion for science, and specifically in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) in grade school children.

The acronym has taken on to higher profile in recent years as educators grapple with the reality that American companies were looking for a skilled workforce overseas because they weren't finding it at home.

Nancy Lenihan, the director of Camp Invention in the Sumner School District who otherwise can be found teaching the 4th grade highly capable program at Daffodil Valley Elementary School, said the hope to lay the foundation for an interest in STEM at the grade school level such that such a workforce would come of age in the next several years. The number of American patent applications have also declined in recent years, she said, which is why the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has a supporting role in the national program.

Camp Invention finds its way to schools a variety of ways. While in other states, funding is made possible by corporate sponsors and students in the hundreds are able to take part, here in Sumner, Lenihan said it is largely supported by the parents who send their children; they pay a tuition so their children can participate. Corporate sponsorships have been harder to come by, in spite of the wealth of aerospace and manufacturing companies in the Puget Sound area.

But the investment is clearly worth it. Lenihan has been heading this program for the last eight years and said that every year, about two-thirds of the students who participate are returning. "They tell their friends about it, so many of the kids bring back friends when they come back the following year," she said.

Upon graduating, some of them continue to come back as counselors because they love the program, she said.

Each summer, Camp Invention develops the week-long curriculum under a theme, and it changes every year. This year, it is "Geo-Quest," with an earth-centered motif surrounding all of the different study modules for the students. "I think that's what keeps the kids coming," Lenihan said. "It's never the same."

The parents share in their children's excitement over the experience. "What they like is that their kids come home just chatting away and sharing and talking abut it," she said. "I've also heard from other teachers in the district is that these kids - they're amazed by the concepts they've connected in science and they come back and they share them in class."

Camp Invention wraps up Friday, July 26 with a showcase program so that the students can share what they've learned with family and friends.

The program will not resume until next summer - likely July, Lenihan said. More information about Camp Invention 2014 should be available by about December of this year, she said, so parents should keep an eye out.

For more information about the program visit www.campinvention.org.