GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD)-The snow may be falling, but at the Van Andel Institute for Education, they are thinking Summertime. Registration is open for their summer camps that range from Kindergarten to High School. The Van Andel Institute for Education has doubled their camps to offer 18, 4-day camps and 16, 1-day camps. New this year is their Kindergarten to 2nd grade camps. These camps are cool, amazing and lots of fun for kids. Thanks to the wonderful staff at the Van Andel Institute for education like Student Programs Manager, Randy Schregardus, who helps make learning come to life at these camps.
There are many different activities that are geared toward different ages at the summer camps at the Van Andel Institute for Education. One of those that is offered for the 1-day camps for Grades 4th through 9th grade is the Seismic Shake. Earthquakes cause lots of damage to buildings so engineers are constantly testing a buildings ability to withstand earthquakes by using a shake table. During this experiment kids will get to first learn about how Earthquakes work. They then will get to test the ability of structures they make using spaghetti and marshmallows. Through this test kids will also learn how different shapes make a structure more ridged. From that they learn how to fasten a surface and see how to keep the walls of the structure are flexible so during the event of an Earthquake some could survive inside of that building.
Another activity that kids will get to explore at the summer camps is the Van De Graaff generator. This ball produces a charge that reproduces lighting so the kids can lean hands on how lighting works and how to protect yourself during a storm. Another fun science experiment is the rocket launcher. Kids will get to use angles to line up their rocket to shoot through one of the moon targets. Using air pressure to propel the rocket this will teach kids about rocket propulsion.
Another cool activity offered for younger kids and older kids is coding. Kids engage in interactive ways that teach them the basic idea of coding for younger kids to learning how to write code for older kids. This summer give your child or children the opportunity for hands on learning to prevent summer learning loss at the Van Andel Institute for Education. You can register for the camps today here.
