By Alesia Williams
Summer is the favorite time of year for most children. While many decide to ditch the books for video games and TV, Kids at the East Atlanta Kids Club’s Sci-Tech Fun & Fitness Summer Camp have been involved with rocketry, robotics, sports, and much more.
The Kids Club launched the six-week summer camp in June to keep kids (ages 7 to 14) engaged in fun, educational, and enriching activities to boost their preparedness for the new school year. Kids Club has partnered with Georgia Institute of Technology, MindKatalyst, and the East Lake YMCA each week to provide campers with science and technology projects, fitness training, and fun field trips.
“I’m thrilled about the concepts our campers have been learning,” says Yaisha Harding, Kids Club Program Manager and director of the Sci-Tech camp. “We have been able to collaborate with a talented group of community partners to develop a curriculum that is truly interdisciplinary and mixes fun with hands-on learning.
Patricia and Patricio Vela, instructors from Georgia Tech, are creating and facilitating the robotics curriculum in July. Instructors from MindKatalyst have already plunged into rocketry, aeronautics, and computer programming with campers during the four weeks in June.
“The kids have learned to create original video games using two different computer programs. They have also learned how to make and control both airplane and rocket models. While the younger kids are focusing on the construction of a plane, the older kids are focusing on the physics and chemistry behind flying,” explains Gary Booker, a MindKatalyst instructor. “Although math, science, and technology are our primary focus, it is important that kids further develop life skills. We design our projects to also help kids learn how to designate tasks, stay focused, and bond with other students.”
Janiya Brown, 12-years-old, is most excited about the field trips. “I can’t wait to go to the Space and Rocket Center in Alabama,” she says. “It will give me a chance to get out of Atlanta and explore more about rocketry. This camp rocks.”
Campers are able to take a break from educational instruction to receive coaching in basketball, soccer, and other sports. Each week coaches from the East Lake YMCA have focused on a new element of sports, including basic rules and drills. Their fitness program also includes HOPSports, an interactive, multimedia training system to help youth fight obesity, smoking, and inactivity. Campers have also enjoyed traveling to the East Lake YMCA on Fridays to swim.
The pool time has been a hit with camper Deasia Sutton, 12-years-old. “I love swimming each week,” she says. “It keeps me excited, and I get to have fun with my friends.”
Campers have a lot to look forward to in the last three weeks of camp (in July): they will build and program robots; engage in a healthy eating curriculum with a local chef and master gardener, harvesting fruits and vegetables they planted in the Brownwood Park Community Garden last spring; they will visit the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama; and they will take a trip to the Philips Arena for the Michael Jackson: THE IMMORTAL World Tour by Cirque du Soleil.
Funding for the camp is provided by numerous donors and partners, including the Georgia Department of Human Services, the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority, REI Foundation, East Lake YMCA, Georgia Tech, Americorps VISTA, and U.S. MicroCorp.
Campers may register for the final two weeks of camp (July 9-20) at http://bit.ly/scitechsummercamp and learn more at www.eastatlantakids.org.
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