Last modified: Thursday, June 7, 2007
School of Education offers summer camp for the mind
Young Scholars SMARTS Camp will hold two sessions in June.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 7, 2007
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Building robots made from Legos and exploring underwater creatures are among the things students can explore during the Young Scholars' SMARTS Camp sponsored by the IU School of Education at IUPUI, June 18-22 and June 25-29.
The camp started in 1982 as a program for gifted and talented students, but it's now open to all. Participants in grades first through ninth can attend either one or both sessions.
"It's for anybody who has a real desire to learn something new and different," said Beth Pickard, camp director and a faculty member in the School of Education and School of Music at IUPUI.
Pickard says the camp is known for using a variety of methods to help students learn concepts. As proof, she keeps on her desk a "marshmallow catapult," given to her by past campers to illustrate a lesson learned.
Pickard and her staff, which includes professors from across the IUPUI campus and schoolteachers from around the area, focus on using unique methods to help campers better understand and enjoy what they are studying in school.
"I ask my teachers to do something with the kids that they would probably not do in the regular classroom," Pickard said. "Don't make it an extension of school; make it an enrichment of school."
The enrichment process focuses on key aspects of scholastic work. "SMARTS" is an acronym for "science, math, arts, reading, technology and sports."
The classes are divided, with first and second grades, third and fourth grades, fifth and sixth grades making up three groups.
A fourth group, comprised of seventh, eighth and ninth graders, will participate in a new addition to the program, the "Whaz UP!" internship and multimedia project. Whaz UP! is the summer component to the IUPUI partnership with the Crispus Attucks Medical Magnet High School. Campers get to know more about the schools at IUPUI that are part of the partnership and what they teach. Aside from the School of Education, the schools of dentistry, nursing, health and rehabilitation, and informatics are involved in the program.
"Our first day each week we'll be visiting all four schools just to kind of get an overview, and then the students will pick a school that they want to spend the rest of the week with," Pickard said.
Tuition fees for the program is $175 per week for all age groups. Class size is limited to 15 students, so to ensure a spot in the desired class, parents are encouraged to register as soon as possible.
More information is available on the YSP SMARTS Camp Web site at https://education.iupui.edu/soe/outreach/young/index.aspx. For questions, e-mail yscholars@iupui.edu, or phone 317-278-4528.
Media Outlets: The following comments are available as mp3 files on the IU School of Education Web site at https://education.indiana.edu/audio.html.
Pickard describes the types of campers who should attend the SMARTS Camp:
"It's for anybody that wants to learn, anybody that has a real desire to learn something new and different, something that probably isn't in the classroom. We came up with the idea of SMARTS Camp because we say, 'this is gonna make you smart.' You don't have to be smart to come, just come and get smart. And SMARTS stands for science, math, arts, reading, technology and sports."
Pickard says part of the goal for the "Whaz UP?" classes for seventh, eighth and ninth graders is to expose them to the Crispus Attucks partner schools at IUPUI—the schools of dentistry, nursing, health and rehabilitation, informatics, as well as the school of education:
"The basic goal is just to get them to these schools, have them realize that they're not a scary place, that they're a place where people care, and people are excited about having them want to know about the school."
Pickard says teachers won't be conducting classes just like during the school year:
"I ask my teachers to do something with the kids that they would probably not do in the regular classroom. Don't make it an extension of school; make it an enrichment of school. And we have a lot of resources here at the School of Education and at the university that we can use to make those things come true. A lot of our teachers have been with us forever because they love doing this, because it's a total different feeling than the classroom."
