Stewart Elementary hosts STEM day camp

WASHINGTON — Nearly 100 kids spent this week at Stewart Elementary for Camp Invention, part of a national program offering daytime STEM activities for Kindergartners through sixth-graders.

Camp Director Janet Conrad said the students cycled through activities in astronomy, art, marine biology and physics, with an emphasis on building things with recycled materials.

“One day they’ll build a robotic arm, and the next day they’ll complete challenges using what they created,” Conrad said. “So they kind of build on each other, and they get to go to all five every day.”

This is the program’s 12th year in Washington. The week runs with a handful of teachers and around 30 high school volunteers that help supervise.

Conrad, a teacher at Stewart herself, said the camp was a great experience.

“The interest has always been amazing, the number has always been between 70 and 110 campers for all 12 years,” she said. “It gives the kids tons of learning opportunities, but also a lot of fun while they’re doing that.”

It’s also a good experience for the many girls involved. Conrad said she was especially proud of the camp’s encouragement for young women interested in STEM subjects.

“It’s important that we have a lot of girls attend,” she said. “It lets girls know they can do engineering and science and math, some of those things that we tend to think more men did, we’re really trying to teach girls that it’s for everybody.”

According to Conrad, the staff learn as much from the kids as they learn from the activities.

“When we give them an opportunity to invent something for a certain task, the kids come up with certain ideas that us adults would have never thought of before,” she said. “They are, I think, more creative and have better ideas than some of us do, so it’s neat to see what they come up with.”

The camp is a great excuse to teach the students STEM subjects.

“The kids like it because they have a lot of fun,” Conrad said. “They’re given an opportunity to be creative and to be kids, but they also have a goal … they get to take them home and use them and show them off. They’re learning lots of science when they don’t even realize it.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com