Middle Gate School’s Camp

Invention Nearly Full

Few openings remain for Newtown’s first Camp Invention, a national summer day program that encourages children to develop their innate creative abilities. It will be held June 26 through 30 from 9 am until 3:30 pm at Middle Gate School for children entering second through sixth grade in the 2000-2001 school year.

Camp Invention is designed to promote creative learning by providing children with hands-on, interactive activities that encourage creative solutions. Children participate in five inventive modules each day, which include: disassembling old appliances and using the parts to make their own invention; crash landing on an imaginary planet and figuring out how to get back to earth; and making models of amusement park rides to learn about motion.

The camp was started in 1990 by the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio, a nationally recognized non-profit resource center for creativity. In 1999 Camp Invention became a joint project with the US Patent and Trademark Office and the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Camp Invention was introduced to Connecticut in 1998, and this summer approximately 320 schools nationwide, including ten in Connecticut, will host the program.

Kirsten Strobel, a teacher at Middle Gate School, has been named program director. She will head up a staff of teachers from Newtown and local high school or college students who will serve as counselors. Camp Invention features a low staff/student ratio, with one staff member for every eight students.

The $170 program fee includes snacks and a T-shirt. A 10 percent discount is offered for siblings. Registration is limited to 110 children. Call 1-800/968-IDEA to register. For further information, visit the Web site at www.invent.org, or call Nancy Landona at 203/575-1567.