March 19, 2024

Extension organizes Newton Summer Day Camps

Students learn about robotics

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To evade summertime boredom, the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Office of Jasper County has compiled a variety of activities during Newton Summer Day Camps this month.

Kara Warrick, a 4-H youth assistant, headed up summer day camps to keep students active mentally and physically.

Warrick’s day camps are designed for children to engage in activities that require mathematics, science, problem-solving and physical activity.

For Thursday’s day camp, nine local children gathered at Sunset Park to participate in a Robotics activity. This activity was designed for students who are entering first through fifth grade this coming fall.

Campers learned about the practice of coding simple robots and the popular robots named “Dash and Dot.”

The Dash and Dot robots buzzed along on the floor as children were required to program them correctly to complete the project. The children were divided into groups and then pressed buttons on their robot, which guided it from a honey bee hive to a 4-H clover on a life-size chart.

“My hopes are that every kid has fun and that they learn something. I think learning comes hand and hand with having fun,” Warrick said.

Warrick has been leading summer day camps for 10 years in Jasper County.

“The things I’ve learned over the years is every camp and every community is different, for sure,” Warrick said. “Sometimes a lot of planning doesn’t go very far and that it just depends on the kids’ discoveries — watching them discover and do new things is what it really is about.”

Warrick will lead two more camps this month. On June 27 there will be a Rockets Away program. Students third through fifth grade will learn about rockets, rocket launchers as well as build their own rocket to take home with them.

“They will build like an engineer at the next camp, whereas this one is thinking like a computer programmer,” Warrick said. “They are all different but stem related.”

Warrick said she encourages children and parents to get involved with summer day camps because it’ll help students make the most of their days they don’t have any other activities planned.

“I think it just extends their learning they’ve done all year in school,” Warrick said. “It just keeps them thinking and not at home being bored. I think it’s a good little summer activity for them and breaks up the summer for them.”

Contact Kayla Langmaid at 641-792-3121 ext. 6533 or klangmaid@newtondailynews.com