ST. GEORGE — About 150 children in grades K-6 participated in Camp Invention, a weeklong STEM day camp held at Crimson View Elementary in St. George.
“They get to do all sorts of fun projects,” program director Kristie Rindlisbacher said, who is also a teacher at Crimson View. This year’s program featured robotics as a main component, she said, adding that the participants did such things as designing cardboard dog houses for their programmable pet robot animals and drawing courses in black marker for their optical-sensored cars to follow.
The idea behind the program is to “incorporate as many skills and real life components as we can,” Rindlisbacher said, so that the children can solve problems using their imagination and creativity.
Students also got to build their own “mini-mansions” out of cardboard, scrap fabric and other random materials “upscaled” or repurposed from other sources.
Many had fanciful ideas about their buildings.
One student, Damian Robinson, said his multistory apartment included a teleportation dock that enabled someone to instantly go to any room in the building just by saying its name. It also had a windmill attached to its side to help generate electricity.
Another student, Danny Brinton, disassembled his robotic animal’s motor and fashioned it into a rotating sander of sorts that could smooth the roughness off a piece of wood.
Sylver Slade was one of many participants who made elaborate doghouses for their robotic pets. Some of the pets got “sick,” leaving their owners trying to find ways to make them healthy again.
“It’s really fun to watch the kids to come up with a real problem and solution that could work in everyday life,” Rindlisbacher said Friday, the fifth and final day of the camp. She said the participants got to take home all of their finished projects at the end of the week to show their parents what they’d created.
Camp Invention is a nationwide program of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Rindlisbacher said, adding that the teachers at the camp were certified classroom instructors who were paid and received inservice credits. They were assisted by high school-age volunteers.
“It’s such a popular camp,” she said. “We get many students coming back and doing it again year after year.”
Camp Invention is one of many educational camps offered in Southern Utah this summer. For more information on other similar camps, programs and opportunities, visit the links in the resources below.
Resources
For a full list of summer camps and 4-H programs available through Utah State University Washington County Extension, click here.
For other summer camps, activities and programs offered through DSU and Southern Utah University, click here.
STEM Action Center Utah’s listof statewide summer camps and programs.
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Banner lists sponsors and supporters of Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participants work on projects during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Participants' projects are seen on classroom table during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participants make tracks for testing their optical robot cars during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participants make tracks for testing their optical robot cars during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participants make tracks for testing their optical robot cars during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participants make tracks for testing their optical robot cars during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participants receive instructions during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participants receive instructions during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participants work on projects during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Participants' "robotic pet" projects are seen during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participant Sylver Slade discusses the house she built for her robot pet during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participant Carter McBride discusses projects during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participants work on their "mini mansion" projects during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participant Malcom Brown writes an ad for his "mini mansion" project during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participants work on their "mini mansion" projects during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participants test their optical robot cars during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participants test their optical robot cars during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participants make tracks for testing their optical robot cars during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participant Kade Boone makes tracks for testing his optical robot car during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participants make tracks for testing their optical robot cars during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participants test out their robotic pets during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participant Danny Brinton demonstrates how he disassembled a robotic animal's motor to make a wood-smoothing device during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participants test out their robotic pets during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participants test out their robotic pets during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participants work on their "mini mansion" projects during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participant Damian Robinson explains his multi-story "mini mansion" project during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participant Matt Cooper works on his "mini mansion" project during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Program director Kristie Rindlisbacher admires camp participant Chloe Gallagher's "mini mansion" project during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Participants' "mini mansion" projects are seen during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
Camp participant Chloe Gallagher works on her "mini mansion" project during Camp Invention at Crimson View Elementary, St. George, Utah, June 8, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeff Richards, a native of Salt Lake City with family roots in Panguitch, lived in Moab for 20 years before joining St. George News in 2017. Jeff is a longtime journalist and secondary school teacher. He and his wife Penny are the parents of five daughters. They also have two young grandsons. Jeff and his family enjoy swimming, camping, sightseeing, reading, and taking pictures.