Blog Behind the NIHF Scenes

Bring Home the Fun with Our Supercharged Camp Invention Program

Behind the NIHF Scenes Program Highlights

Where can your child join a team of superheroes, build tools to survive on an island, design the farm of the future and reverse engineer a robot? They can do it all at this summer’s new Camp Invention® program — Supercharged™!

Each year, the education team at the National Inventors Hall of Fame® (NIHF) works closely with our Inductees to develop a new curriculum that will give children exciting, hands-on experiences that build confidence, creativity and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) competency.

With our 2019 Camp Invention program, participants will enjoy a range of activities to keep them engaged through guided play. Each of our Supercharged activities also includes take-home items that will allow every camper to continue the fun and innovation long after their program week has ended.

Read on to find out what your child will experience — and bring home — when they attend Camp Invention’s Supercharged program this summer!

DIY Orbot™

Your child will explore frequency, circuit boards, motors and gears as they use real tools to reverse engineer their very own remote-controlled DIY Orbot. NIHF Inductee Ching Wan Tang will give participants the keys that unlock scientific discovery — experimentation and observation — and throughout the week, each camper will adapt their DIY Orbot to perform increasingly challenging daily tasks, from playing soccer to creating abstract art masterpieces.

Innovation Force®

Our Innovation Force activities feature world-changing inventors as dynamic superheroes. Your child will team up with the Innovation Force® to stop the Plagiarizer, a villain who is out to steal the world’s ideas. They’ll create a device to retrieve stolen ideas while learning about the importance of intellectual property and the U.S. patent system.  Not only will your child be introduced to life lessons from real inventors, but they’ll also be encouraged to identify an inventor as their own “My Innovation Icon,” or career role model.

Deep Sea Mystery™

As our campers embark on a research adventure at sea, on a mission to dig up fossils, they’ll soon find themselves stranded on an island. Applying their creative problem-solving skills and using lessons and advice from NIHF Inductees Sumita Mitra and Stan Honey, participants will design and build prototypes of island-survival tools as well as underwater equipment that can be used to study marine life.

Farm Tech™

With Farm Tech, Camp Invention participants manage their own innovative farm while learning the basics of running a business. With the assistance of a robot named Bot-ANN-E, your child will learn fundamental coding techniques while completing tasks like hatching eggs and planting seeds. NIHF Inductee Marvin Caruthers introduces our participants to DNA syntheses, and they’ll perform their own mock DNA experiment to check the health of their newly purchased cattle.

Take-Home Fun

The hands-on learning won’t stop at the end of your child’s week at Camp Invention. Take-home items will include:

  • Remote-controlled DIY Orbot
  • Orbot accessories including a trading card with certification stickers
  • Bridge or tunnel obstacle
  • Superhero disguise including a cape, mask, gloves and glasses
  • Glo-Logo device
  • Light-sensitive “X-ray” paper
  • Innovation Force comic book
  • Fossil
  • Little Dipper projector scope

Register for Camp Invention

To learn more about Camp Invention and its benefits, and to give your child this Supercharged experience, please visit our website and register today.

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