WACO, Texas (KXXV) — Camp Invention is thriving in its fifth year, teaching gifted and talented campers the fundamentals of STEM. This week-long camp is free, making it easy on the purse strings while students keep their brains sharp.
- Camp Invention is held at G.W. Carver Middle School for a week-long camp, having students expand their minds and learn the elements of STEM.
- Students from 15 Waco ISD campuses are represented this year.
- This camp is free for those attending.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Did you know the average cost for summer day camps here in Texas ranges from $150-$400 a week? Specialty camps that focus on sports, music, or STEM can be as high as $600 a week? As pricey as these camps can get, some are free, like Waco ISD’s Camp Invention, focusing on STEM attributes. But how can this week-long camp be free for around 90 kids each year?
“We pay for this out of our advanced academics, and so it's open to gifted, talented students. We do a sign-up. We have about 85 students here this week. This is our fifth year to host this camp. We originally started this right after COVID when we had some additional funding, the ESR funding, and then, because we had such people just begging for us to do it again, we have been able to budget it within our department to be able to host it again this year,” Paula Miller said, Director of Advanced Academics at Waco ISD.
“We just feel fortunate enough that we're able to do that um we want to be able to open it up to all of our students and so that just helps us um with equity and make sure that students, we have students representing all of our 15 elementary schools here with us,” Paula added.
Summer learning loss, or the “summer slide,” is defined as the decline in academic skills and knowledge that students experience, especially during the summer. So, how are school districts learning to combat that? Waco ISD has found a way, by putting on summer camps like Camp Invention, honing in on STEM skills, and having students brainstorm and use their science, technology, engineering, and math skills creatively to keep the brain waves flowing.
“I want to be an inventor when I grow up. I'm pretty sure I want to, I have to be really good at that stuff,” said camper Jude Davoust.
“I think it's really important for them to learn in the summer so they don't lose I guess their track of mind because a lot of the time they could get like off track by like spending time inside or just on technology or something like that I feel like keeping their mind working really helps so what when they go into school they're already like mentally prepared,” Stephanie Rodriguez, volunteer at Camp Invention said.
