Exploration Place extends its popular Camp in a Box program
Exploration Place’s virtual STEM camp program — where campers get a themed box of about 25 home-based activities to do in a week, plus have virtual meetups with instructors — is being extended until the end of August.
The success of the program also has science center staff working on even more digital programming, such as virtual school field trips that will likely start in September.
The center’s Camp in a Box program was set to end next week, but the program proved so popular that the camps will continue through the last week of August. The program has attracted more than 400 registrations so far; some students signed up for more than one camp. Participants have come from not just the local area and Kansas but also from across the country and even Germany.
The possibility of later school starts because of pandemic precautions also factored into the decision to add another three weeks of camp, officials said.
“We had never done this before the pressure of the situation forced us into it, and we couldn’t be happier with the results,” said Adam Smith, Exploration Place president. “We’ve opened up new opportunities and horizons. I don’t think we’ll stop the virtual programming because it’s gone so well.”
Along with the virtual summer camp, Exploration Place has created other digital programming for its Facebook page and YouTube channel. That programming started airing when the center shut down temporarily for COVID-19 precautions in March. It reopened to the public July 4.
The virtual programming has expanded Exploration Place’s educational reach beyond the physical walls of its building along the Arkansas River in Wichita, officials said.
“Historically we’ve only reached kids close enough to come to Exploration Place,” Smith said. Out-of-state campers this summer have hailed from Florida, Utah, Colorado, Virginia, Pennsylvania and California.
Exploration Place staff scrambled to replace its traditional in-person weekly summer camps with a robust virtual camp, with the first week of camp starting right after Memorial Day.
Smith said one of the things he challenged his staff to do was come up with something more creative than just a few recordings. The camps needed to have quality, substance and interaction happening between the educators and the campers.
“True interactivity is to get kids to make something happen all while working on an experience together,” Smith said.
Each weekly camp includes a box of about 25 activities, 10 Zoom meetups and five lunch-and-learn seminars. The box can be picked up at the center or shipped for an extra fee. The twice-a-day Zoom meetings revolve around the activities while guest educators are featured in the lunchtime seminars. According to camp promotion material, the combination of virtual and “IRL” — short for in real life — activities means kids can learn while not being glued to a digital screen.
The camps are suitable for ages 6 and older. Tom Simmons, an instructor of two of the camps including this week’s Minecraft-themed camp, said he has had students ranging from first graders to high school sophomores in the same camp.
Even parents got involved in the camps, he said.
“I think we got a two-for-one deal,” said mom Jennifer Slaght, during a Zoom interview. She said she has looked forward to the camps as much as her 9-year-old son Ryan does.
The three camps Ryan has been enrolled in —including the tomb raider and Minecraft themed camps — were a much-welcomed activity for the Slaghts who moved to a U.S. Air Force base in Stuttgart, Germany, in late 2019. Ryan “hated anything screen-related” but the virtual camps had a 180-degree effect on him, Slaght said.
With the success of the virtual summer camps, Exploration Place also plans to start offering virtual school field trips as early as September, Smith said. Traditionally the center hosts about 17,000 schoolchildren in more than 300 field trips annually.
Once again, Smith is challenging his staff to be creative and come up with a virtual field trip that will leave a lasting effect like a traditional field trip usually does.
“It must be at least as good as an in-person field trip,” he said. Smith anticipates the virtual field trips will be less expensive and require fewer planning logistics — no parent chaperones required, for one —for schools and teachers.
Extended ‘Camp in a Box’ program
What: An extension of Exploration Place’s virtual summer camp program of home-based activities and virtual meetups
Remaining camps: Aug. 3-7, choice of “Animation” and “Making Music” themes; Aug. 10-14, “Wild Weather” theme; Aug. 17-21, “Creator Craze” theme; and Aug. 24-28, “Jewels, Gems and Geodes” theme. Registrations taken until noon the day before start of camp but should be made earlier if choosing to have the box shipped. Registration limited to 45 campers each week.
Where: Pick up the themed box during open hours of 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, and Friday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday. at Exploration Place, 300 N. McLean or pay a $20 shipping fee
Cost: $90 for nonmembers, $75 for Exploration Place members for each camp box
More info: 316-660-0600 and exploration.org/programs/camp-in-a-box