By Wendi Reardon Price
Clarkston News Staff Writer

Each child put on their safety glasses and picked up a screwdriver before opening the small robot in the desks in front of them on the first day of Camp Invention at Clarkston Community Education, July 10.
They were in one of four modules offered through this year’s Wonder program – MimicBot, which through the week they transformed a robot into a one-of-a-kind animatronic stuffie.
But first they were going to see what was inside the robot and check off what they found in their adventure log.
Next door other campers had just finished designing the back of finger-sized skateboards and were making ramps in Catching Air. In the station, they would be designing and building their own skate parks throughout the week.
Jasper Forst shared he was excited about it because he had just gotten into Tech Deck.
“This will be really fun and I can take it home,” he said. “I have five boards to play with.”
He added it was his first time at Camp Invention and signed up because he knew a few people who were going.
“I like inventing stuff and my dad is an engineer so I have that in my veins,” Forst said.
It was the third time Easton Schipper was at Camp Invention after starting to go in third grade.
“It’s fun that each year there are different classes,” he said, adding he likes how everyone bring in items to reuse and everything is made out of the items to make something new.
For five days, children in grades Kindergarten through sixth also had Pop-Up Venture, designing their own pop-up business, and Invention Celebration, taking on the role of an event planner.
Camp Invention, a program from the National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF), uses STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) to help the children to use their creativity to solve problems.
For more information, visit www.invent.org/camp.

PHOTO: Jasper Forst tests out his skateboard ramp. Photo: Wendi Reardon Price