Like other inventors of the time, children who attend the Camp Invention program this summer will be thinking green. Recycling and ecology-minded brainstorming are themes for Invent Now Kids programs, which originate from the nonprofit National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation. The Camp Invention program is coming to Northampton Elementary - Klein GT in Spring June 16-20; Ehrhardt Elementary-Klein ISD in Spring and Tomball Elementary School on June 23-27; The Woodlands Preparatory School in Spring July 7-11; and Klein United Methodist Church on July 28-August 4.  The Encounter modules will be held at John Cooper School  in the Woodlands on June 16-20.

As adult innovators search for alternative ways to produce fuel, thousands of children at week-long Camp Invention programs across the country will search for ways to clean up the water in imaginary Lake Lucky. As inventors worldwide struggle with the challenge of global warming, participants in the Camp Invention program will use recycled materials to build fantasy inventions and complicated machines that will give them hands-on engineering experience for the future.

Camp Invention, a program of Invent Now Kids, which is a division of the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation that gets support from the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, teaches elementary-aged children problem-solving and inventive-thinking skills. “The next generation needs to be prepared for some pretty powerful challenges,” explains Camp Invention Regional Coordinator Kim Lindenfeld. “By teaching our participants the hands-on methods used to brainstorm creative solutions, we’re fairly sure that we’re making a positive contribution toward the future. At the Camp Invention program, children learn basic inventive-thinking techniques that they will carry into adulthood.” 

During a module called Saving Sludge City, Camp Invention participants this summer will create water filters out of funnels, coffee filters, sand and pea gravel. Once they have completed several other clean-up techniques for Sludge City, participants will become the architects of a whole new green city that they will proceed to build during the program week. 

There’s more green thinking during the week, too. The Camp Invention module, I Can Invent: Fantasy Inventions & Complicated Machines, encourages children to frequently visit the program’s recycle pile to confiscate materials that they will use in inventions of their own design. During the first few days of the program, participants dismantle old appliances – such as toasters, VCRs or computer keyboards. For the remainder of the week, participants entering grades one through three design unique items of their choosing, such as a weather predictor, a robotic homework monitor, a new cooking device or another creation. Whatever they choose to design, children use recycled items to immerse themselves in projects that will plant the seeds of ingenuity. Participants entering grades four through six have a different assignment. They use recycled materials to build complicated machines that accomplish several tasks before launching water balloons.

Children who participate in the Camp Invention program rotate through five modules each day. All programs include I Can Invent: Fantasy Inventions & Complicated Machines. Another module also included in all programs is Recess Remix, which involves a combination of physical activity and creative problem solving during which children participate in fun, energetic games that require teamwork, cooperation, coordination and inventive thinking.

The Imagine set of modules, which includes Saving Sludge City, also involves a module called Art Park in which the children renovate an art museum’s sculpture garden, and a module that explores the planet Mars, during which children determine how to travel on the planet and how to communicate with each other and friends and family back home on Earth. 

The registration fee is $205 for the week-long day program and includes daily snacks and a t-shirt. Various discounts exist through May 31. Registrations received after May 31 require a $20 late processing fee. Each program is limited to 110 children. 

For more information, or to register, visit  HYPERLINK "http://www.campinvention.org" www.campinvention.org or call (800) 968-4332.