Kids tackle solar power, 'sludge' at Camp Invention

By Diane Huber | The Olympian • Published July 28, 2008

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Campers created cereal box cities, soda bottle spaceships and oatmeal canister totem poles last week at Camp Invention, a national summer camp program at NOVA School in Olympia.

Camp openings available

NOVA School has several slots available in its summer camps, which run 9 a.m. to noon Aug. 4-8. Campers can sign up for various themes, including watersheds, mathematics through history, the science of cooking, and art and culture in Mexico and Central America. Camps are open to academically talented students entering fourth or fifth grade. For descriptions and pricing, call 360-491-7097 or go to www.novaschool.org.

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The theme was creating with recyclables — and having fun, of course.

"So many of the projects we do at school have definite boundaries. This is pretty much a free-for-all. … I think they enjoy the freedom," said Nancy Smith, who directs NOVA's summer school programs.

About 62 elementary school students participated in the weeklong day camp. They rotated through stations, including a Mars theme, a recycled-art room and a "Sludge City" project, in which students learned about various pollutants and built a pollution-free city.

The campers said residents of Sludge City had dumped garbage in the lake and built pollution-producing factories, so they rebuilt it with a few green innovations, such as a NASCAR track with solar-powered cars and a solar-powered cheese factory.

"We had to think about how it could be environmentally friendly. We're using a solar-powered catapult ... to fly the bus to the school," said 10-year-old Joey Watts, a fifth-grader at Madison Elementary School.

The school bus, made out of cardboard, also could float, just in case.

In another station, students built contraptions designed to pop a water balloon. Picture a ramp, a golf ball and some tacks. Students crouched around their creations, situating egg cartons and securing ramps with duct tape.

Cedar River Academy fifth-grader Aaron Field, 9, was ready to try his out, pre-balloon. He perched the golf ball at the top of the ramp and let go. It rolled through a Styrofoam tube to a chopstick-shaped lever, shooting the opposite end of tacks upward, where the balloon would sit.

"Yes! That was perfect! That was perfect!" he exclaimed.

He said the camp has been a worthwhile way to pass summer vacation.

"It helps us learn new things, and it gives us self-confidence," he said. "Kids can learn from their mistakes and know they can do something. Now they have something to feel good about."