Where Imaginations Run Wild Camp Invention sets young imaginations on adventure with programs that encourage teamwork, creative problem solving, and inventive thinking skills.  This exciting week offers children an opportunity to be creative and messy, take apart gadgets, solve puzzling problems, build their own inventions and meet new friends.  This nationally acclaimed program is being offered at Woodland Intermediate School for the fifth year and is open to students entering grades 1 through 6.

Experiences for this year’s Camp Invention from the Explore module include:

I Can Invent and Take Apart:  Imaginations run wild in I can Invent as children create a fantasy invention, either individually or with a small group.  The children take apart broken or discarded household appliances such as clocks, radios, and telephones.  Before taking items apart, however, children learn how to safely use common tools.  Then they use the parts of these items to create a new problem-solving invention of their own or a design by which to improve an existing product.

Some inventions may work, but most are functional only in the imaginative mind of the child.  Important lessons in this module include how to keep an inventor’s log and how to get a patent.  Children try their hand at marketing their fantasy inventions, which includes creating advertisements and brainstorming marketing techniques.  The culminating activity is a masterful display and oral presentation of the invention. 

Tape Me to Your Leader:  Are we alone in the universe?  Might there be other inventors in our galaxy?  Radio signals reach Camp Invention headquarters, and children tune in to make contact!  Children explore engineering principles by building three-dimensional structures using tape, cardboard, and other recycled materials.  They use problem-solving skills and lots of creativity as they prepare for their alien encounter.

Wild Blue Y’Under:  Important documents must be delivered to the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame, and Y’Under Incorporated knows just who should deliver them - children from the Camp Invention program!  Children design and build methods of transportation that will take them around the world while keeping important documents protected from spies who want to swipe them!

Solve It:  The Missing Inventor’s Log: Dr. June Cleaver’s Inventor’s Log is missing.  It is up to the children of Camp Invention to discover who has taken it!  A week of crime scene investigation will uncover the guilty party as children conduct experiments and use forensic science and deductive reasoning to find the culprit.  Could the guilty party be Dr. Clever’s twin sons, her able assistant, the nosey neighbors, or her inventor competitor?  Any of these suspects could be responsible for the missing Inventor’s Log… and it is up to the children to determine the culprit!