Summer camps gear youths up through tech
The community’s youths can get hands-on technology experience this summer through a wide range of camps at the Innovative Technologies Center at National Park College.
Seven of the nine camps offered this summer are through ITC, and so far students have learned the basics of 3D modeling and design during 3D Bootcamp June 4-7, and robotics basics in this week’s Robotics Camp. Through the remainder of the summer, ITC will offer two engineering camps, Drone Camp and Young Manufacturers Academy, which will allow students to hone their technology skills, while the college will also offer additional camps focused on basketball, board game making and crime scene investigation.
“We’ve always had summer camps but we’ve kind of shifted the structure of it to do some more technology-related camps,” Melony Ritter, interim director of marketing for NPC, said. “We used to have Kids College and now we’ve kind of separated those out and each week focuses on a different area.
The camps have always had a good response but they fill really quickly.”
Julian Post, educational programs coordinator for ITC, said the Robotics Camp was full as soon as registration became available, in part because of the limited number of spaces available. The skill set the students have had to learn has been challenging, Post added.
“This is stuff that an undergrad might struggle with and I’m doing this with grade school kids as kind of a test, making sure that if it gets to a point where it’s a little bit frustrating, there’s something to alleviate that,” he said. “But I think they’re going to walk away with some new skills and they get to keep everything they build. I’m hoping to have a competition where they take all the parts and make something new, and right before school starts they can come back and show it off and possibly win something.”
One of Post’s volunteers has been a student who participated in the recent 3D Bootcamp, Sasha Thomas, a seventh-grader at Hot Springs Junior Academy. Having participated in a previous camp and now volunteering, Thomas said he thinks most youths would enjoy the camps.
“What I like about it is it’s very open. … It’s more do what you want, but we advise you to do this, this and this,” he said. “And then (robotics) is mostly the same concept, but it’s more like get the robot done and then you can mess around with it. More structured.”
The two engineering camps will take place July 9-13, one specifically for girls, Post said.
“In the all-girls engineering camp, it’s themed toward there’s an epidemic and you have to solve that crisis,” he said. “In the other engineering camp, that’s being done by the University of Arkansas. We’ve contracted with them to come down and put on that camp. They received a grant in their engineering college to do just that, so they charge but it’s at cost only. It’s a little pricey but it’s kind of worth it because they have grad students that come down and do that, which is really cool because the camp counselors, so to speak, are closer to the age of the attendees.”
Post said the ITC is always looking for community feedback to better plan for future camps and workshops.
“We’re always open to new ideas for camps, we’re open to new ideas for classes,” he said. “For instance, you may have the most burning desire to learn how to underwater basket weave which you know is a real thing — they do it underwater to keep the reeds soft. We would like to offer that here.”
Spaces remaining in different camps are limited, but to register for camps or find more information, email Pam Castleberry, pam.castleberry@np.edu.