Above / Remember the joys of tinkering with toys? DuPage Children’s Museum prepares to launch Tinkering Camp, a one-week program when the museum will bring design-build-make virtual summer camp to the Chicagoland area.
DuPage Children’s Museum is bringing the magic of tinkering to children this summer. Virtual Tinkering Camp will combine construction with art and making through the lens of tinkering. Each camp consists of curated projects to explore independently along with online meetings to provide an opportunity for collaboration. All materials for the camps are provided as part of the registration cost.
Tinkering is the playful precursor to becoming the world’s next great problem solver! Tinkering Camp offers hands-on activities focused on process, where creativity comes to life through planning, construction, testing, and invention; trial and error; success and failure. Campers will bring their imaginations to life through creative problem solving, flexible thinking, a failure-positive mindset, and fun!
Three week-long sessions will be offered in July
The camp will run in three separate week-long sessions throughout July. Campers ages 4-10 can join us for one week or all three! Learn more and register at dupagechildrens.org/summer-camp/
- Launchpad | Monday, July 13 – Friday, July 17
Registration Deadline: Monday, July 6 - Crazy Contraptions | Monday, July 20 – Friday, July 24
Registration Deadline: Monday, July 13 - Music Makers | Monday, July 27 – Friday, July 31
Registration Deadline: Monday, July 20
What is special/unique about this Tinkering Camp?
Working on creative projects supports practicing persistence in a unique way. Throughout DCM’s Tinkering Camp programming, children will feel ownership over their project and motivation to continue to work, problem solve, and gain understanding in order to complete their vision.
“Our camp is unique,” notes Museum Arts & Maker Specialist, Dustin Thacker, “because it gives children a chance to truly work through the design – build – engineer process in a playful way. We start with simple concepts and as the day (and week) progress, we build off of what we have learned to build more and more interesting and original things.”
An opportunity to explore in Tinkering Camp is the perfect answer to a child’s question about how things work…where everyday objects, tools, and materials come from.
Thacker explained that when collaborating to build “things that do things,” children engage in all kinds of learning. They develop problem solving skills; fine motor skills; and the foundation for more complex making, technology, and engineering. Parents will see their children as capable, curious learners, engaged in the process of playful experimentation.
“When we are fully engaged in an activity, we are actively building self-confidence, joy, and all kinds of other cool stuff!” Thacker said.
When collaborating to build “things that do things,” children engage in all kinds of learning. They develop problem solving skills; fine motor skills; and the foundation for more complex making, technology, and engineering. Parents will see their children as capable, curious learners, engaged in the process of playful experimentation.
For example, on Catapult Day, tinkerers start by simply launching with a ruler off the edge of the table, progress to a rubber band-powered launch (storing energy), and by the end of the day everyone is building something unique, of their own design, often with unexpected results.
According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and colleagues at the Boston Children’s Museum, “Children engaged in open-ended tinkering and making experiences practice skills they will use throughout their lifetime. The end product of tinkering and making experiences is not as important as the process. As children grow and mature, their ability to use tools, collaborate with others, experiment, observe, make discoveries, tap into prior knowledge, communicate, and persevere will continue to develop and flourish.”
“We are so excited about Tinkering Camp. It is an amazing opportunity for kids to ask and answer, ‘how, what, why, and when,'” said Museum CEO, Andrea Wiles. “It is a safe, supportive environment for experimentation with awesome facilitators and a group of their peers. Our camp leaders are looking forward to some great ‘aha’ moments.”
First registration deadline in July 6
Learn more and register for Tinkering Camp at dupagechildrens.org/summer-camp. Registration deadlines for each camp are the Monday prior to camp. The first registration deadline is Monday, July 6 for Launchpad. You won’t want to miss this camp where young engineers will create moving, spinning, flying creations that propel their prototyping powers to the outer limits!
Sponsorships welcome
Tinkering Camp is sponsored locally by Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley, which has generously underwritten more than 20 scholarships for children in their service area. The Illinois Arts Council Agency is also providing support for Museum interns through a youth employment grant program.
For information about sponsorship opportunities, contact Renee Miklosik, Chief of Development, at DCM, rmiklosik@dupagechildrensmuseum.org or (630) 637-8000 x2400.
