BIDDEFORD — On Monday afternoon, a group of more than a dozen local 7- to 12-year-olds sat hunched over, carefully watching plastic cups buzz and twirl and crawl across the table.
The children were participating in the first day of Engine’s week-long April Vacation Makers Camp and had just finished making “robots,” as they put it ”“ plastic cups stilted with markers and powered by small, battery-operated motors.
When the motors were switched on and the markers were uncapped, the cups shook around on pieces of paper, leaving colorful, zigzagging lines in their paths.
Engine Education Coordinator Amanda Hawkins explained Monday that Engine’s Makers Camp is all about combining science with art. The Main Street nonprofit previously held a camp during school vacation week in February.
Hawkins said the children learned about chemical reactions during Monday’s workshop. They also learned about mechanical energy by building robots powered by rubber bands, she said, and electrical energy by building the robots powered by batteries.
“The whole goal of Makers Camp is to combine science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics into one curriculum,” said Hawkins.
Monday’s workshop started at 9 a.m. and ended at about 4 p.m., said Engine Executive Director Tammy Ackerman, and workshops will continue during those times through the end of the week. According to an April 4 press release, parents can pay $65, or $50 if they’re an Engine member, to have their child attend one of the day-long workshops. There are reduced rates for two or more children signing up together.
“Makers Camp emphasizes the act of hands-on experimentation,” the release states, “thinking, tinkering, learning how things work, and why things work through a series of fun and creative projects that promote innovative and creative thought.”
The integration of science and art wasn’t hard to observe Monday. After the children made sure their robots functioned properly, they turned their attention to aesthetics.
“Give it some personality. Go to town. Make these robots your own,” Hawkins told them. So they wrapped construction paper around their science experiments and attached fuzzy, brightly colored pipe cleaners and googly eyes to them.
“I’m making a face on mine,” said Harry Leonard, a third-grader from Biddeford. “His name’s Jeff.”
— Staff Writer Angelo J. Verzoni can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or [email protected].
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