By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS
Changes to the format are allowing Fort Hays State University to bring back summer camps hosted by the Kansas Academy of Mathematics and Science. The camps were canceled last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
High school students entering their freshman or sophomore year are invited to participate in a variety of interactive residential camps in June.
Students will participate in various hands-on academic activities during the day with FHSU faculty. Campers will participate in several socially distanced activities in the evenings, and camp staff will be available day and night for the students.
The 2021 camps and dates are:
• June 6-10 – Engineering Design & Art: 3D Scanning and Printing, Digital Manipulation, and Lost Wax Casting. At this interactive camp, students will learn to use and navigate advanced 3D-modeling software to create a self-portrait using wax castings, ceramic molds, and sculpting techniques. Campers will also have the opportunity to use equipment at the FHSU for Applied Technology to create one-of-a-kind art projects.
• June 13-17 – Math, Code, & Magic. At this interactive, computer science-based camp, students will learn and acquire basic Java programming skills to reveal the secrets behind some of magic’s most difficult card tricks. Using hands-on lab time and graphic user interface learning, campers will work to uncover the mathematics behind some amazing and magical “read your mind” card tricks.
• June 20-24 – EcoTech: Birds & Bytes: This camp features exciting introductory biology & computer programming projects to help students discover how hands-on ecology and high-tech tools can work hand-in-hand. Campers will get to conduct water studies at the historic Cheyenne Bottoms, create real smartphone nature-tracking apps, capture and collect data on small mammals, and build DIY trail cameras. Campers will even get to develop their computational thinking skills by programming a Raspberry Pi microcomputer.
• June 27-July 1 – Faster than the Speed of Sight: At this camp, students will learn how to use a high-speed camera to analyze video of events that are too fast to see with the naked eye. Questions such as “how long is the blink of an eye” and “do a baseball and basketball really fall at the same rate” will be answered as students collect video recordings of experiments and measure data in a high-speed learning environment.
The registration fee per camp is $100 for Kansas residents and $400 for non-Kansas residents. The registration deadline is May 1, with a priority deadline of April 1. The camp fee includes a residential room, meals and snacks, camp supplies, and a camp T-shirt. Admittance to each camp will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
The size of each camp has been reduced from 20 to 12 students to adhere to COVID protocols.
There will be only one camper per residence hall room, and the lower number of campers will allow for social distancing on buses, in classrooms, and in the dining halls. Face masks will be required to be worn at all times, and there will be symptom checks every day.
Camps are subject to format change or cancellation pending pandemic guidelines at the time of each camp. Participation is limited to one camp per student.
For more information about the summer camps, contact KAMS Camp Director Sheila Clark by phone at 785.628.4168 or by email at kamssummer@fhsu.edu. The registration brochure can be downloaded here: REGISTRATION BROCHURE.