Hands-On Learning is Fun at St. Mark's Camp

Throughout the first week of August, St. Mark’s Church has been holding camps that have proven to be fun for both young boys and girls throughout Washington Township. The objective? To encourage learning, even as the children continue to enjoy their summer vacation away from school, by allowing them to play.

The boys and girls are learning in separate ways. A Battle Bot Build-a-Thon, sponsored by Hackettstown-based Super Science for kids, has seen its largely male demographic build robots. The boys—ages 6 through 12—then have the robots compete in events and battles with robots designed by fellow campers.

“Each day, they have different activities they can do. Since it’s Battle Bots, they can battle all week,” said counselor Ian Denzer-Wiler. “Today, we have an obstacle course set up, tomorrow we’ll have soccer, and then we’ll have tug-o-war and robot bowling. They have a different task they have to build a robot for each day, and then every day, if they want to, they can also battle.”

The camp, according to its description on Washington Township’s events calendar, is a “minds-on challenging class where students will be taught to apply physics concepts in a fun-filled environment.” This week, more than 40 boys have taken part in the camp, which encourages creativity and critical thinking as problem-solving methods.

“We don’t have any instruction booklets,” said Denzer-Wiler. “For this camp, the only instruction is what the kids make up.”

While the boys are getting a lesson in physics, the girls are getting a history lesson as they participate in American Girl Adventures.

This is a camp that encourages the young girls participating to learn about different periods of American history through the time periods each of their dolls represents.

“Out of this, they’re getting friendship, they’re getting history, because we’re talking about not only each American Girl, but what’s going on in the larger time period,” said counselor Emily Feigenbaum. “Then, they actually get to do the crafts that they would do in that time period, so they’re getting the hands-on learning.”

Feigenbaum believes it to be a valuable experience for young girls to learn about growing up in a time much unlike the present day.

“Her doll is in the time period of gender reform and the education amendments, so they get to think about what it would be like to not be able to play basketball in school, or not be able to wrestle,” said Feigenbaum. “Even now, if they really wanted to wrestle, they’d have to go on the boys’ team, but they could still do it.”

The girl-specific camp ends Friday with a party, where the girls—ranging in ages 7 to 11—will celebrate with their American Girl dolls and other favorite dolls that they own.