LAFAYETTE PARISH — Summer break may mean time away from the classroom, but for hundreds of Lafayette Parish students, learning continued at Camp Invention during a week of hands-on STEM activities focused on creativity, engineering and problem-solving.
For fourth grader Asher Beebe, the experience has been about more than building inventions.
“Being with my friends and creating new inventions every day,” Beebe said when asked about his favorite part of camp.
The week-long program encourages students to explore science, technology, engineering and math through projects designed to spark creativity and innovation. Camp counselor Marleigh Auzenne said helping students discover their interests in STEM is what inspired her to become involved.
“I actually want to go into the science part of STEM – pharmacy – so just being here with the kids and helping them figure out their pathway into STEM is what got me here,” Auzenne said.
Students also tackled real-world challenges through their inventions. Beebe designed a backpack that could be worn in the water to help clean up pollution while protecting marine life.
“The claw will pick up trash and there'll be a detector for animals. Animals will go red and trash will go green, so it knows what to pick up,” he said.
Beebe said his invention was inspired by concerns about pollution in the ocean.
“Pollution problems!... because everybody's throwing out like 5 billion trash in the ocean every day, and I'm just thinking that a lot of animals live there. We can’t ruin the animals’ home!” he said.
For leader-in-training Fletcher Champagne, Camp Invention is about more than science and engineering. He said the program helps campers build confidence by encouraging them to turn their ideas into reality.
“You just love it when you see their eyes light up when they look at their first complete invention and they're like, ‘I did it, I can do stuff,’” Champagne said.
This summer, community support helped expand Camp Invention to five locations across Lafayette Parish, giving hundreds of students access to hands-on STEM experiences. Scholarships provided by Louisiana Blue, Love Our Schools, MacLaff, Inc., Pinhook Foundation, The Stuller Family Foundation and Moncus Foundation helped make the program accessible to more families.
