Over the summer, St. Mary’s Academy hosted two sessions of enrichment camps for middle school students we dubbed SMART Camp.  These two-week sessions were comprised of morning and afternoon workshops that incorporated science, math, art and engineering/ technology also known in the education world as STEAM.

The morning portion of the first session of SMART Camp focused on Recycled Science and utilized recycled materials from  Trash for Teaching.  Our students learned about various types of energy sources and the importance of finding renewable alternatives to fossil fuels. Students used iPads to do research on energy sources, created comic strips about their selected topics, and built functioning windmills that could raise an object.

The afternoon portion of the first session was a crash course on Musicianship. The girls learned the very basics of music: 1) reading and writing notes on a music staff in Treble Clef (notation & note recognition)  2) learning basic tempos, symbols, and terms for reading music and 3) recognizing and differentiating between the sounds of all the instruments in a classic symphony. They also learned the families of instruments in an orchestra: woodwinds, percussion, brass, and strings.

They were also challenged to write how certain music makes them feel during listening exercises held at the beginning of each class period.  They watched videos on how music affects the brain, how people use music in other countries, and learned that music can be made with anything.  The final two days of the session,  the girls collected all kinds of items they would normally throw away or recycle, and brought those to class. With some extra materials, they were able to build and create their own instruments, which they performed with on the final day of the session.

They also learned proper performance and audience etiquette (i.e.- walking on stage as a group, bowing afterwards, and clapping with enthusiasm til the last person walks off the stage).

 

During the second session, our middle schoolers’ went on a virtual tour, The Smithsonian Adventure, as they explored the various Smithsonian museums. While learning about the National Museum of the American Indian, students used an interactive website from the museum to learn about the Nuu-chah-nulth people of British Columbia and their traditions of weaving and whale hunting. Students even got to hear and practice some of the Nuu-chah-nulth language! Then, our SMART Campers put their new Nuu-chah-nulth weaving skills to use and made placemats of their own design. 

At the National Museum of African art, students learned about how animals, symbolism, and geometric design are used in the art of the Nkanu, Bamana, and Dogon peoples,. Then, they chose an animal to represent them in a bookmark of their own design! Afterwards, our SMART Campers made their own Oware sets. Oware is the Ghanaian version of the board game mancala. For centuries the game has been used in Ghana to help teach young people strategy and responsibility for oneself and others. The goal is to never destroy your opponents; a player must always ensure their opponent has enough “seeds” to keep playing. After a tutorial on how to play Oware the girls couldn’t wait to start outmaneuvering each other!

After two weeks of learning about the abundant collection of art and artifacts at the Smithsonian and using their knowledge to make some awesome art, our girls opened their own museum! They were so proud to display their work for family and friends of SMA during their own opening. 

 

During the afternoons of the second session, our SMART Campers learned about technology, how robots work, and the basics of programming! The campers worked in pairs to program a robot to complete a maze and then got to put them to the test. Along the way, the pairs became fond of their robots and even named them.   It was great to see the young ladies making observations, measurements, adjusting for variables and different terrain types. Learning how to code directions for a robot can help anyone think more efficiently, so it was great to see so much growth in such a short span of time.   At the end of the session, the group gathered together to cheer on their robots as they completed the mazes both indoors and outside. We might have some future engineers and programmers on our hands!


We hope to see our SMART Campers in a few years as future Belles!

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