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Sixty youngsters from Stanly and surrounding counties participated in Camp Invention, a STEM summer camp program for grades K-6, the week of July 18 at Oakboro Choice STEM School.
“Camp Invention is a program offered through the National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF),” said Jennifer “L.J.” Crawford, the STEM coach at Oakboro, who also serves as local camp director.
“This is our second year offering the camp, and we are set to offer it again in 2025,” she added.
The camp is a four-day experience for participants, whose days are spent in hands-on activities which, according to information from NIHF, is “designed to challenge participants to discover and explore the incredible world of invention.”
“The participants stay busy the entire time,” said Crawford, who noted that camp instructors are teachers at Oakboro STEM, with assistance provided by middle school and high school-aged “Leaders-in-Training.”
“ ‘Illuminate’ is the theme of this year’s camp, and consists of four areas of exploration,” she said.
“Campers explore sports science at ‘In the Game,’ ” Crawford noted. “They examine materials used to create sports equipment such as different types of balls, and create various types of games”
“ ‘Operation Hydrodrop’ has campers working with robotics and learning the global importance of water,” Crawford added, noting that activities include taking apart a light-up robot to see what is inside and developing a system to treat gray water for use on crops, as well as learning about conditions created by floods and droughts.
In keeping with the camp theme, participants in the “Let’s Glow” group learned about biophysics and light.
“Campers in this section explore UV and white light, bioluminescence, reflection and refraction,” said Crawford, “and they build a ‘glow box’ while doing so.”
“In the ‘Prototyping Studio’ campers are challenged to create tools from everyday materials,” said Crawford. “They also assemble a toolbox to carry these items.’”
At each station, campers connect by video with inventors in the fields of theatrical technologies and special effects, microbiology, biochemistry and engineering before and during hands-on exercises.
Crawford expressed gratitude to local sponsors and supporters for providing a number of camp scholarships, as well as NIHF for providing resource materials for the camp.
“We have $1,500 in scholarships available for students,” said Crawford, “and any extra materials provided by NIHF for the camp are available for the school to use as needed.”
Crawford added that the dates of the 2025 camp will be July 14-17.
“Registration can be done online at www.invent.org,” she said.

Toby Thorpe is a freelance writer for The Stanly News & Press.