Using three-dimensional pens to make 3D sculptures and designing and coding robots aren’t usually activities associated with summer camp, unless you’re a student in Putnam County.
The activities, part of the Putnam County School District’s 2023 STEM Summer Camp, also included designing, building and coding robots, developing motorized boats, learning to fly drones and using microcomputers for a variety of purposes.
Fifth and sixth graders learn how to pilot a drone.
More than 144 rising first- through sixth- grade students attended the free camp held June 12-16 at C.L. Overturf, Jr. District Center in Palatka. 25 area high school students volunteered as camp counselors, helping the 20 teachers serving as STEM instructors with activities and students while earning volunteer hours needed for graduation and scholarships.
STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines — science, technology, engineering and math.
Second graders learn about the science behind using ice to make tie-dyed T-shirts.
Immersing themselves in the STEM curriculum, campers made towers out of newspapers that had to support the weight of a basketball and learned the science behind using ice to make tie-dyed T-shirts and ice cream.
L-R: Kytalin, Lincoln, Trenton and Damiya pose in front of the tie-dyed T-shirts they made.
Engineering principals were covered with teams of campers challenging each other to design and construct the tallest floating castle using toothpicks and cut-up pool noodles.
“These students aren’t just learning about the STEM fields, but also about cooperating as part of a team and how to turn shared ideas into the best possible product as a result,” said Lorena Dominey, the district’s STEM resource teacher who organized and oversaw the weeklong camp. “We conducted more science experiments this year than previous years, and we really focused on the scientific method in our curriculum.”
Boats played a major role in this year’s camp, with first graders making milk carton boats, second graders making balloon-powered boats, third graders building paddle boats and fourth graders engineering motorized boats.
A camper demonstrates the balloon-powered boat he made.
Campers also created stop-motion animation videos, learned special-effect editing for trick shot videos and participated in nature studies by visiting the Ravine Gardens State Park.
They also took part in the program “Common Sense Media,” which teaches digital citizenship, ways to stay safe online, and promotes appropriate online behavior and etiquette.
Joshua Payne demonstrates the robot he built.
Joshua Payne, who will be in the fifth grade next school year, said this was his second year at STEM camp. “It’s really fun and I get to learn about robotics.”
Campers use a computer to program their robot.
“We had many returning campers this year,” Dominey said. “We also had some previous campers who were too old to be campers but they came back as camp counselors.”
One of those returning campers as counselor was Bentley Metzger. “I’m having a great time with the first graders,” he said. “They’re really funny.”
“At its core, STEM is a teaching philosophy that integrates all four disciplines together into a single, cross-disciplinary program which offers instruction in real-world- as opposed to purely academic applications and teaching methods,” said Mike Helms, STEM specialist for the district. “The goal of the district’s STEM initiative is to provide every student with opportunities to succeed while preparing for careers that are relevant to today's job market.”
“The amount of planning and work by everyone involved is worth it when we see these kids get inspired about STEM, making connections with real-world applications, and considering their future career options after being exposed to these activities,” Dominey said.”
Feed the Need of Putnam County donated food for the campers. “It provided snacks during camp in addition to their lunches and allowed campers to take food home for their families.”
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