Annex Charter School holds STEAM Camp

   There are students who thrive in traditional classroom learning environments and others who are better at hands-on instruction.
 Annex Charter School, in Annex, Ore., recently held a four-week summer STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) Camp aimed at giving hands-on learners the opportunity to design, create and, in the end, further enrich their learning experiences.
 The funds for the camp were provided through the federal government’s CARES (Corona Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act signed as a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus package under President Donald Trump’s administration.
 The money was administered through an Oregon Department of Education grant.
“We didn’t want to do remedial, traditional kind of summer school,” said summer program administrator Joe Burris. “We wanted to do something that was really more of a hands-on, project-oriented form of summer camp.”
 Participants were students in kindergarten through eighth grade.
 The camp, which was held 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. four days per week, over four weeks in June, featured three projects per day, using the skills required to design and build in each of the STEAM disciplines.
 “Everything has been based around the design process, trying to get them thinking about problem solving,” said Burris, whose background is in educational technology. “A lot of times, during the school year, we are kind of tied to the curriculum and this gives us the chance to be a little more hands-on and project based.
 “Some of our less traditional learners, I think, benefitted from finding success in building some stuff that they ordinarily wouldn’t get a chance to build, and some of our students who are more traditionally successful also benefitted by getting to do some more hands-on things, putting the academics into some practical applications.”
 One mother said her sons took to the camp more than she had anticipated.
 “They really got into it and didn’t want to do anything else,” said Cheyanne Strange. “They really enjoyed it. It really kept their minds stimulated. They would come home and start building stuff, and really got their imaginations going.”
 Part of the curriculum for the summer camp included a Star Lab.
 Funded by Malheur County’s Education Service District (ESD), the lab mimicked a planetarium, which depicts constellations in the night sky.
 The ESD is an important source for Annex Charter School, which relies on the District to fund a variety of services, including special education, counseling, speech therapy and others.
 The organization, which helps assist small schools stretch their budgets, provided funds for the school’s 3-D printers and computers, which participants used as part of the camp’s program.
 “Joe and I have worked together before and have been both very interested in technology, but this was a new adventure for us and it worked out really well,” said Annex Charter School Principal and Superintendent Steve Bishop. “Kids love it. We can integrate all the subjects, but the kids are doing hands-on stuff every day, which is really good for a lot of the kids, especially in light of last year where it was so disjointed. We want to keep doing this and we will find the money for it because it’s been so valuable and the kids responded so well.”