Educators at Wadsworth city schools were blown away by the overwhelming response to their STEM camp registration.
“We did online sign ups at 6 p.m. on a Monday and by the time we came back in Tuesday morning, we had 370 kids interested for 240 spots,” said Dr. Michelle Evans, director of the curriculum at Wadsworth City Schools.
The district ended up with 470 kids signed up before they closed the registration.
“As play has become more scheduled and kids are involved in more structured activities, you’ve kind of lost that joy of discovery,” Dr. Evans explained. “So that’s what this is all about…There’s real interest in this community, more than I’ve ever seen.”
Because of the heightened interest, Evans said they were able to secure more funding to allow for an additional 200 or so students to participate in the weeklong camp, which is Aug. 3-7 from 8:30 a.m. – noon at Wadsworth Middle School.
Kids will be sorted into grade levels and small groups for the STEM camp: K-2, grades 3-4, and students in 5-8 grade. Teachers have been training for it thanks to the resources from NASA Glenn, which has an education specialist who offers free training.
“She trained the Franklin Elementary School staff throughout the year. We were just training teachers for STEM and then we found out we got the grants and we booked another training session with her,” Evans explained. “So, we’re able to capitalize on some of the resources we have through NASA.”
Wadsworth’s STEM camp will be centered around Mission Mars: satellites, rockets and rovers. Yes, it means astronaut Michael Foreman is coming to town for the camp! Roger Havens, Franklin Elementary School’s principal, secured the special guest for the event.
“I think it’ll be exciting for the kids to meet a real astronaut who was from Wadsworth,” said Evans. “Kids are natural builders and are naturally creative. That’s the goal of STEM is to keep that interest alive.”
