Recently Park City played host to a science-based summer camp that was all about space!
Mad Science is an organization that travels throughout Utah putting on interactive, science-based summer camps. The Park City event was called NASA Academy for Future Space Explores, and drew young participants from throughout the area.
Jeramy Colvin, a teacher with the Mad Science program says that he experiences — without fail — an interest in science ignited by at least one child during each course he teaches.
“We get stories all the time of kids going home and deciding they want to be an astronaut or they want to be an engineer or a chemist or something like that,” Colvin said. “It just piques some interest inside of them.”
As an example, one of the youngsters went home after a day of learning about comets and asteroids. As her imagination took over, she used paper and creativity to design a defense system that would protect Earth from asteroids.
Colvin says he loves hearing about the things that happen after one of these summer camps. He continues, “When they get science in their hands, it opens up a lot of possibilities…”
Four-Day Summer Space Camp
The four-day course taught participants about the solar system’s planets, along with space travel and gravitational forces. The course was co-sponsored by NASA, and to make the experience even more exciting, many of the parts of the camp were designed by NASA engineers.
The camp was held at Park City High School, whose halls and classrooms saw participants challenged as they took science into their own hands.
Colvin says that this camp is entirely different that just reading about space — it actually makes the science come alive.
He says that its wonderful to watch as the children’s eyes light up in understanding and learning. He continues that one of the goals of the course is to get the kids to think critically — a skill that has benefits far beyond science class.
More Than Just a Class
Colvin says that there are also significant social aspects to the classes. He says that the classes are more informal and make the participants step out of their comfort zone. He says he has seen children who didn’t engage at first, step out and become very interactive with others in the class.
An Out of the World Experience for New Generations
Park City Rental Properties understands how important these types of courses are to the development of our children, and we are proud to have such programs within our community!
