By Andrew Martins
Staff Writer
JACKSON – Young people will be able to take a more inventive approach to learning this summer as the Jackson School District holds its first four-day session of Camp Invention from Aug. 1-4.
Camp Invention will be held at the Howard C. Johnson Elementary School. Students in grades one through five will have a chance to use science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to find solutions to real-life problems.
Robert Rotante, the school district’s director of curriculum, said, “The kids basically get the opportunity to be innovative and to create things from building a robot to using a project to come up with a solution to a problem. Throughout that process, they will do a lot of problem solving, critical thinking and making decisions … the culmination of that is really the communication and collaboration with each other.”
Rotante said the camp will be an extension of the school district’s STEM initiative.
“We used to be able to learn science in isolation, learn math in isolation and learn computers in isolation, but all of those things are so interdependent on each other now,” he said. “That is what kids going into the workplace are finding; that it is not OK to just know computer programming, you have to know the mathematics that goes into the programming.”
Students in all grades can also choose to take part in a summer art and musical theater camp, a film and television production camp, a hands-on STEM summer camp, and programs offered through the Community School such as exercise classes, first aid, beginning band, summer stage band, all-shore summer focus, beginning guitar and drum set fundamentals.
“Summer is absolutely a time for our kids to relax and have fun, but it can also be a time to try something new or to explore an area of interest, like science or digital media or music,” Superintendent of Schools Stephen Genco said. “All of our summer classes are geared toward offering opportunities for our students to expand their horizons. You never know what is going to grab their interest, so we try to offer a little something for everyone.”
District administrators said the summer programs are self-sustaining, with all money generated through registration fees being used to cover expenses.
For more information about the summer camps, visit the Jackson School District website at http://www.jacksonsd.org/