In collaboration with the Liberty Science Center, Jose Marti Middle School in Union City has opened its doors to a new weeklong summer science camp for children from sixth through eighth grade from Hudson County.
"The Liberty Science Center designed the science camp and [invited students] from five Abbott Districts to participate," said Lucy Todd, technology specialist for the Union City Board of Education.
The "Abbott Districts" are New Jersey urban schools that get extra state aid to try to bring them up to the education level of suburban districts.
"Based on the subject and since this is a prototype year, we wanted to work with the middle school kids," said Theresa Spataro, science camp coordinator for the Liberty Science Center.
The camp, which has been dubbed Summer Science Exploration, currently caters to about 100 students from Harrison, Hoboken, Jersey City, Union City, and West New York.
"This fulfills a vision of the Liberty Science Center, which wanted to provide activities for the kids during the summer," said Todd, "and a vision of Union City Superintendent Stanley Sanger of providing a summer camp that also catered to the academic side."
How to build a robot
"Kids applied to the camp, which is focusing on natural disasters and robotics," said Todd. "Each grade level is given a task to develop a robot or machine that could be useful in the event of a natural disaster."
Students are doing everything from researching data to creating robots using everyday things found around the house from cardboard to rubber bands.
"I love science; it's fun," said Jeffery Suriel, 11, West New York. "I've been learning about the human body and force of motion, and we do a lot of experiments."
Breakfast of champions
Everyday students start off with a well-balanced breakfast, which is provided by the program, and begin their group activities around 9:15 a.m. every morning.
They are also continuously in and out of what is known as the probe room, where they conduct a majority of their data research for their robotic projects using what are known as PASCO Probes.
"They are probes that are there to help the kids measure data they are taking," said Todd. "They are measuring weather and force of motion, just so they can have some background on the robot they are developing."
They work until about 12 p.m., break for an hour lunch, and then continue on their day until 2 p.m.
"Everything is project-based," said Todd. "All the projects that they are working on are research that will go into the robots they are developing."
Recreation, too
However, last Tuesday after lunch, all the students had an all-grades group activity as well, where they had chance to run and play while reviewing some of their lessons about water.
"We want the kids to have as much fun as possible," said Todd. "They are very hands on and they love it. It's been phenomenal."
The children have been broken up into grade level and into core groups of 15 for labs, which are conducted by district teachers and a Liberty Science Center science educator. A total of six teachers from throughout the participating districts and six educators from the center are working in the camp.
"The wonderful thing about this program is that we have children from other communities involved," said Astrid Amar, a teacher at Union City's Veterans Memorial School. "You have teachers and experts working hand in hand, and the kids are so excited to be here."
"We're learning a lot more stuff about science than we get at school, and I have made a lot of new friends," said Korin Musa, 10, Union City.
Pet rescue
While the seventh graders are building machines to take liquid and solid pollutants out of the water, the sixth graders will be designing robots or machines that will aid in pet rescue following a natural disaster.
"This allows the students to build something of their own, and also coincides with a bill passed in New Jersey [recently] about rescuing cats and dogs in the event of a natural disaster," said Spataro.
Throughout the week, the sixth graders were studying and conducting hands on experiments involving water testing, hurricanes, weather systems and how they work, and even close study of the geology of the county. They have also already begun developing their robots.
"Camp has been really fun; we get to build robots to save the animals from hurricanes," said Tatiana Quizhpi, 11, of Hoboken.
At the end of the week on Friday, the students are scheduled to make their final presentations of their working robots.
Funding for the project has come from the Liberty Science Center, which supplies a lot of the materials, as well as from participating schools.
Some students are already asking if the camp will be available next year.
"Our goal is definitely to expand it, and we want to keep exploring different topics," said Spataro.
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