Last week, the Center for Energy Education hosted a Summer STEAM camp at the Knox Community Elementary School in partnership with the Starke County Youth Club. STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, and Math.
Lisa Dan, the Midwest Outreach Director for Center for Energy Education noted that instead of the typical STEM camp, they added an “A” for agriculture, as their summer camps are hosted in rural communities with a lot of agricultural industry.
The camp ran from Monday through Thursday, June 23rd through 26th, in conjunction with the morning SCYC Summer Camp that was running at the school throughout June. Students who attended the STEAM camp were educated on the benefits of clean energy, with each day focusing on a different type of clean energy source.
Over the course of the STEAM camp, students participated in hands-on learning activities that saw them creating things like solar ovens, balloon-powered racing cars, rain gauges, bird feeders, and more. At one point during camp, kids were able to construct solar cars that were provided by SOLVEnergy.
Guest speakers for the STEAM camp throughout the week included local mint farmer and businesswoman Deb Wappel, local farmer and landowner Billy Bope, and Mary Perren, Community Outreach from Hoosier Solar.
Dan talked about helping the kids understand there are other types of energy available besides coal, and the importance of having other options to improve power. The kids got to see a solar panel that was manufactured by Crossroads Solar in South Bend, and Dan talked about the importance of producing these parts locally rather than getting them from overseas.
Attendees of the camp ranged from 3rd to 8th grade, and they were instructed by Jasmin Carter, STEAM Education Manager with Center for Energy Education or C4EE. Carter traveled here from North Carolina to participate in the camp. Aforementioned Lisa Dan, and summer intern Ruby Bickel also assisted with camp from C4EE, as did Miss Kate from Starke County Youth Club.
WKVI chatted briefly with camp attendee Emma, who shared what it was like building her wind-powered racer: “It was fun trying to build it, racing it? Ummm….harder.”
Emma talked about some of the other activities they had done: “We made bird feeders with sunflower butter, bird seeds, and toilet paper rolls and string, so a lot of re-using.”
Another camp attendee, Alexis, shared about one of the earlier projects they completed: “We did one activity, it was a water wheel. We took 2 paper plates, and index cards, and folded them and taped them to the paper plates. When you hold it up and pour water on it, it spins.”
Attendees all received goodie bags before leaving camp.
Dan noted, “We hope we can do this every year”.
Dan said she would like to thank the Starke County Community Foundation for their Hardesty Memorial Endowment Fund grant as well as the sponsorship from SOLVEnergy that allowed C4EE the opportunity to host the camp this year.
