Kids get inventive at STEM camp
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HOLLIDAYSBURG – More than 40 students are gaining experience – and having fun – with a wide variety of STEM subjects this week courtesy of Camp Invention, an engaging science day camp held at Frankstown Elementary.
According to Assistant Superintendent Tracy Boone, who was instrumental in bringing the camp to the Hollidaysburg Area School District, administrators are excited to offer the program that features science, technology, engineering and math lessons geared toward students in kindergarten through sixth grade.
While some students prefer athletics or the arts, others have an interest in STEM, which the district is more than happy to nurture both in and out of the classroom, Boone said.
Camp Invention is a program run by the nonprofit National Inventors Hall of Fame in partnership with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in about 1,500 installments nationwide each year.
This year, campers are exploring four “modules” of project-based curriculum designed to teach scientific concepts in an approachable and fun way, said Lindsey DeAntonio, a teacher at C.W. Longer Elementary and a camp counselor volunteer.
These modules, which rotate every year, include optical illusion, claw machine, penguin launch and GPS.
In the GPS module, students learn about satellites and GPS technology and build their own Morse code terminal to receive messages sent from a camp counselor.
Frankstown rising fourth grader Will Murtagh said this module has been his favorite so far.
Murtagh, a self-described “science fan,” particularly enjoys the hands-on portions of camp, and especially anything to do with wiring or engineering.
“I want to be an electrical engineer,” he said.
Camper Emma Wessner, a rising fourth grader at Foot of Ten Elementary, said her favorite module so far is making a bobblehead out of arts-and-craft supplies to attach to her morse code receiver.
Wessner is a big fan of any creative component of the camp, where she can design her own projects under counselor supervision.
According to DeAntonio, the variety of activities available for campers helps them develop problem solving, strategic thinking and creativity, among other skills.
DeAntonio is one of six Hollidaysburg faculty members who answered Boone’s invitation for staff to serve as counselors for the camp, which has been running from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. each day this week, and wraps up today, Thursday, July 17.
“It’s designed to inspire kids at a younger age,” DeAntonio said.
The response from both children and their parents has been “really, really good so far,” so the district is planning to bring Camp Invention back for a second installment sometime during summer 2026, Boone said.
Mirror Staff Writer Conner Goetz is at 814-946-7535.