Camp Invention

As I've mentioned, Tyler has been attending Camp Invention this week. This is a nationally recognized program that was created by the National Inventors Hall of Fame and is sponsered by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Tyler's day was almost as long as a typical school day! They packed a lot of activities into those 6 1/2 hours! Each day they rotated through 5 different modules. The program at Tyler's school this year was the Discover program. Because I know no one will ever hear all the details from Tyler, here is a summary of his week.


One module involved finding a lost Viking treasure. A couple days they worked to make boats out of different types of materials. The boats had to float and carry their treasure as they sailed to Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland. One day they created a shelter to house their team during their travels. Another day they had to create things to help them overcome obstacles and booby-traps. They ended by making treasure chests to hold their treasure.


Another module discussed comic book science. They each created their own superhero with his/her own specific super talents. Each day they discussed "super science powers" such as morphing and flying (concept of lift). They made a model of their superhero and illustrated their own comic books. Tyler made Super Bug Guy whose super power is laser eyes.


Another module was called Land Sled X-treme. The ultimate goal of this module was to create a land sled that would compete in an obstacle course. The younger kids' sleds had to carry a stuffed animal. The older kids' sleds had to carry a person. From what I understand, the kids competed in games and earned points for their teams. They then used their points to buy supplies for their sleds. Tyler and our neighbor Luke were in a group with two other boys. The races were today, and Tyler claims their land sled was "the fastest in history!"


These last 2 modules would probably tie for Tyler's favorites. One was a Recess Remix where they were supposed to play familiar games but add new twists to them. I think they mostly did water games but added something new to them each day. I don't really know the details about all the games, but the kids got pretty wet. It sounded like a lot of fun.


The other module was the invention module. Each child brought in an appliance of some sort to dismantle and then used that to create something new. Tyler brought in a CPU that was packed full of parts. He had a ton of stuff to take apart and really seemed to enjoy it. The director stopped me at pick up one day to tell me how well he was doing in this module. After they took their items apart, the kids had to think of something that "really bugs me" and then invent something to solve it. Tyler was bugged by "puppys eating legos". His solution: "A invention to get my legos out of my dog's mouth". He called it the "Doginater" while he was working on it but dubbed it the Dog 3000 once it was complete.


Today was the inventors' showcase. The director made it clear that the inventions are not supposed to work. Instead we should imagine with our child that the invention does exactly what he says it will do. Here is Tyler's Dog 3000. I'll let him explain it to you. (I deleted the video because it has Tyler's full name in it. If you'd like to see it, email me for a link.)







We got home shortly after 3:30 this afternoon. Tyler promptly sat down at the table with his Dog3000 and bag of spare parts from the CPU and started taking things apart. He sat at the table and worked on dismantling everything he could until we put him to bed a little after 8! We ended up having a picnic on the floor in the family room for dinner because he had parts all over the table. He really seems to have enjoyed his week and is already talking about going next year. We're proud of him and his Jimmy Neutron brain. :)