Posted on Aug. 6: Summer fun at McMaster camps
[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/summer_camp_kids.jpg” caption=”Mini University”]
Would you like to see what's inside a grasshopper, hear what bones have to say, brush up on your basketball, or get fit with cardio-funk?
For more that 3,000 elementary and secondary students, the answer was an enthusiastic yes.
This list is just a sampling of the many activities available to participants in McMaster's annual summer camp programs.
The University offers four main summer camps: Venture Engineering and Science Camp, Mini-University, Sport Fitness School and Marauder Sports Camp.
Programs began in July and continue throughout August.
Venture Engineering and Science Camp
Venture, run by the Faculty of Engineering, provides campers with opportunities to experience the worlds of engineering, science and computers through fun hands-on activities. The Engineering and Science Camps provide campers with a diverse mix of engineering and science activities, including a dissection and a “Junkyard Challenge”. Computer and Technology Camps, another division of Venture, teach students about the computer world around us while helping them to create digital animations and other projects.
Mini University and Junior Leadership Program
Mini-University is a two-week summer camp designed to show that learning can be fun through hands-on activities. Students can explore the natural world, unravel the mysteries of the human mind, and, in the process, discover their own world. Hands-on, self-directed activities are combined with recreational programs to create a complete “University Experience”. As well, campers experience an overnight stay in residence and participate in a graduation ceremony. With a variety of topics available, designed to explore both sciences and non-sciences, participants are sure to find something that interests them.
Marauder Sports Camps teach the FUNdamentals of basketball, football, soccer, swimming, and volleyball. The goal is to teach the basic fundamental skills, improve each camper as both an individual and team player, promote the game as a life-long activity, and challenge players to play at the next level.
This extremely popular program celebrated its 25th anniversary last year and always fills up quickly. SFS is a multi-sport program that provides children with opportunities in a wide range of sport and fitness related activities. The school is designed to influence lifestyle choices and increase the value of sport and fitness activities to children. Participants choose three sport activities from 22 offerings: aquatic games and instructional swim, ball hockey, baseball, basketball, cycling, dance, diving, football, golf, in-line skating, junior leadership, karate, kidsport, orienteering, outdoor adventure, senior sport, soccer, squash, synchro, tennis, track and field, volleyball, waterpolo, and wrestling.
Like most campers, Victoria, 8, Audrey, 9, and Christina, 9, three participants in the swimming camp, have had many new experiences this summer. For Audrey, belly flopping off the seven-metre tower is an experience she would perhaps rather forget, but Victoria sums up their summer, and the summer of thousands of other campers, in one simple sentence. “I basically like everything.”
Photo caption: High energy Mini-University participants greeted Commonwealth Games delegates at a news conference at McMaster last week. Photo credit: Chantall Van Raay
