Jul. 22—In one classroom, spinning robots flash white lights amid a red circle in the dark as part of "cutting-edge ocean research."
Another is transformed into a "spacecation" as campers use volcanoes to make space pizza while vacationing aboard a "spacecraft."
In a third room, cardboard boxes are converted into angled shoots, some with plastic tubes, as students design marble arcades.
It's all part of Camp Invention 2022 at Ivy Tech Community College. The event is in partnership with the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Duke Energy and the Terre Haute Camp Invention team and offered to children entering kindergarten through sixth grade.
This year's camp, now in its 19th year, has 75 participants, up from 40 participants last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic when the camp was held via Zoom.
"It is really great to be back in person for the camp," said Lindsey Goldman, director of Camp Invention and a first grade teacher at Fuqua Elementary School. Goldman took over from longtime director Tim Moss.
This year, participants move among four camps — Robotic Aquatics, NIHF's The Attic (where campers build a robotic artist), Spacecation and Marble Arcade.
"Remember how tricky a robot can be, things can break down, things don't work," Deb Herndon, an English teacher at Terre Haute South Vigo High School, told campers Thursday in Robotic Aquatics as small robots spun.
Herndon told campers their robots will have to be able to go over things on the ocean bottom to disperse aquatic plants.
"So, they will have to have some type of sensor. What kind of sensors did we talk about?" she asked.
One camper said something using a laser. Another said submarine sonar, while another said radar.
"Yes, sensors on the side, on the top and the bottom so they know where to plant things," Herndon told campers. Here, students are helping to "bioengineer" an aquatic plant using cardboard, pipe cleaners, shoe strings, suction cups and recyclables while learning the relationship of plants with aquatic animals.
Randy Spencer, a science teacher at Honey Creek Middle School, said the marble arcade teaches campers about physics, angles and incline planes. His participants are in kindergarten and first grade.
Students design marble slots or shoots inside a cardboard box "to see how a marble drops. We have been talking about friction, slowing it down or speeding it up. It is hands-on trial and error," Spencer said. "There is a lot of problem-solving involved in this."
For example, different cardboard angles, with less slope, can slow a marble while steeper angles can make a marble roll faster, and sandpaper can increase friction, slowing a marble.
Six-year-old Riaan Penmatsa, showing his cardboard arcade, said, "I am trying to get the marble to come into this," as he pointed to a paper plate with a hole cut out in the middle. "I put a booby trap here, and I hid it and put some clips in to slow (the marble) down."
In Spacecation, students made a "hydraulic" arm out of popsicle sticks, clips and metal grabs. That arm was used to place colored balls that are toppings for a pizza crust. The job of two assistants, acting as microgravity, was to knock the toppings from the pizza. Students had three minutes to overcome the challenges and make their pizza over a small volcano.
The students on Thursday were studying Io and Europa, two of the moons of Jupiter.
Brock Cottrell, 9, said he wants to be an astronaut.
"I like this because I want to learn about space," Cottrell said. "I like the volcano pizza because people are trying to grab it while you make it, so it is a challenge," he said.
While the camp ends Friday, those interested in registering for the 2023 Camp Invention can go to www.invent.org. Next year's camp will be July 17-21. A location has yet to be determined. In addition to Ivy Tech, previous locations have included Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Indiana State University and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.
The cost of the camp is $245 for the week. There are scholarships available, such as from Duke Energy which has a $2,500 sponsorship for the camp, along with other smaller donors, Goldman said.
Reporter Howard Greninger can be reached 812-231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com. Follow on Twitter@TribStarHoward.
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