Camp Invention returned to Plant City last week for the seventh year.
The five-day STEM-focused summer camp is organized by the National Inventors Hall of Fame, teaming up with local educators for over 30 years to bring communities a safe and hands-on camp.
Paul Coletti, a local teacher at Walden Lake Elementary School, has played an integral part in bringing the camp to Plant City and 2021 marked his seventh year leading it. And despite COVID-19 cancelling the camp in 2020, 133 students ranging from kindergarten to sixth grade, representing 37 different schools, attended in 2021.
Included in the curriculum designed by Camp Invention’s national organization, students were able to deconstruct and rebuild microphones in an “open mic” area, design and engineer their own race car and even build a solar-powered cricket that they then work to transport safely around obstacles.
“Our goal is to make this their best week of the summer,” Coletti said. “And then after what they do here, they get home, get into the recycling pile, pull out some duct tape and then start creating at home. You do the whole thing, you hope that you inspire these kids for science, technology, engineering and math and they get fired up and that they’re excited.”
Coletti was initially introduced to Camp Invention as a second grade teacher in Gainesville and later got the camp up and running in Plant City after relocating, with the camp ultimately finding its home on Strawberry Festival grounds at the Arthur Boring Civic Center. Now in his 19th year as a local camp director, Coletti has watched the program grow within the community and saw a record turnout for attendance this year.
With the help of local elementary and middle school teachers as instructors, along with high school and college students volunteering as group leaders, Coletti has also been able to build a strong staff of over 40 to keep the student-to-staff ratio as low as possible.
And Coletti’s biggest emphasis is the “hands-on, minds-on” mentality that the camp brings to the kids that attend, an opportunity to create and learn outside of a classroom setting.
“It’s just playing, creating, inventing, problem-solving, working with a team,” Coletti said. “It’s the stealing or sharing an idea with one another, you have that ‘together everyone achieves more’ vibe to it and it’s all those little things.”
Looking forward, Camp Invention already has their dates set for next year’s camp, taking place from June 6-10, 2022.
