Summer camp to explore today

The Maine technology initiative has proved to be both a very exciting and a very controversial plan. Many critics of the laptop proposal have questioned its cost and its usefulness. In particular, many recent comments have appeared either expressing the difficulties of getting middle school students to treat the computer as something other than a toy or suggesting that the presence of computers in classrooms will make students less attentive to their studies and more vulnerable to the potential dangers of the Internet.

Although some attention has been paid to preparing teachers to operate in computer classrooms, very little attention has been given to making students alert to the real opportunities that computers and their links to Web sites all over the world offer, opportunities that make available new techniques for learning basic skills and the innovative ways that these skills are being utilized now.

From June 24-28, Summer Explorations, a new summer program at the University of Maine for students presently completing grades five, six, and seven, will offer an opportunity for students to learn how to work in small teams and to develop interactive technology projects with digital cameras, Lego robotics, puzzles, and language. These participants, who are of impressionable age and whose aspirations are just forming, will learn how to integrate their ideas through developing computer skills while describing their activities and reflections by creating Web sites with pictures and writing. Students of this age are those targeted by the Maine Laptop Initiative, and Summer Explorations should help to provide productive models of learning in a computer-rich, integrated environment.

A team of scholars form the University of Maine in English, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mathematics, and New Media decided to plan this program together with several college students. By bringing together puzzles, programming with Midstorm Lego Robotics, and writing, participating campers can learn mathematical principles, problem solving, logic, and composition. The fascination of puzzles, computers, and websites should make the development of new, integrated skills pleasant.

The teachers in Summer Explorations have observed these young ‘partners in learning’ in the public school system, in private schools, and even in home-schooling situations. In planning Summer Explorations, we have built on students’ curiosity and have respected their desire for fun and adventure. Summer Explorations blends classic puzzle solving with state-of-the-art technology. Puzzles are solved by learning new strategies; students make their own puzzles from Legos and from simple household materials. Computers are used when and where needed. In addition, weather permitting, some activities are scheduled outside, such as labyrinths spray-painted on grass. In these cases, both mental and physical activity is needed to find appropriate solutions.

Summer Explorations is short (one week), but our participants should leave with impressions and skills for several years to come. They develop ideas and interests to work on in the coming weeks and months should they wish to do so. More than anything, our participants will learn to work with each other and to learn from one another.

This is the first summer camp of this type in northern New England. We integrate new technology with classic knowledge and reach our students at a most impressionable age. Additionally, all of us planning Summer Explorations expect to learn as much from our participants as they will learn from us. The Maine Laptop Initiative makes such a camp all the more practical for Maine Students – right here, right now. Summer Explorations begins on June 24 and will end on June 28. Parents of fifth, sixth, and seventh graders may enroll their children by contacting mmsets@maine.edu by e-mail, or by calling the Agent Institute at the University of Maine at 581-2023.

Eva J. Szillery, Ph.D. is director of the Maine Mathematics, Science and Technology Talent Search at the University of Maine System & Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance.