Innovation filled the hallways of the campus center at the University of Maine at Presque Isle Wednesday as a group of young engineers demonstrated their original snow plow designs.
Instead of steel, these vehicles were made of cardboard boxes, plastic cups and paper plates.
They were the creations of a group of third and fourth graders from around Aroostook County participating in Camp Invention, an annual STEM summer camp held at UMPI.
The week-long day camp is sponsored by the National Inventors Hall of Fame. It’s open to rising kindergarteners through sixth graders.
“It’s just a great enrichment type of activity for the students,” camp director Sarah Sines said.
The camp tests campers’ innovation, creativity, problem solving and persistence through four different modules that present challenges they have to solve through invention.
“In each module, they present biographical information on inventors that have something to do with the module theme,” Sines said. “So they learn about inventors of all different kinds that have provided inventions that have to do with their themes.”
Some of the inventors featured this year include Lanny Smoot, a Disney inventor who patented numerous special effects, and Lonnie Johnson, creator of the Super Soaker.
The modules are followed by an “Inventors Showcase” at the end of the week, where campers can display their creations to their families.
This year’s camp was 8-year-old Levi Olsen’s first. The Mapleton resident’s favorite part of the week was the claw machine module, where campers had to create their own claws to pick up objects. This, of course, took teamwork.
“[We’re] working together, making teamwork make the dream work,” Olsen said.
Older students can participate in the camp by acting as “leaders in training” (seventh, eighth and ninth graders) or leadership interns (high school sophomores, juniors and seniors and college students).
Twelve-year-old Brock Everett of Fort Fairfield chose to return this year as a leader in training after attending the camp the past two summers. He said the experience was rewarding from both sides.
“I would say it’s more fun being a camper because you get to actually make stuff,” Everett said. “But it’s a little bit of both, because I like to help out and just be a kind and generous person.”
Sines, a second grade teacher at Washburn District Elementary School, is one of four instructors at the camp, all local teachers. Much like the campers, they appreciate the break from the academic rigor of the school year to flex their creative muscles.
“We’re used to standards and unit tests and high stakes testing, and there’s none of that here,” Sines said. “It’s just fun. There’s no wrong way to do something. So I think campers enjoy that.”
