Comment Ideas for Your Summer Camp (Score 1) 49
Hi.
I think it is great that you have a camp that is well rounded in the arts and soon to be technology. I studied both music and physics in college, so I really appreciate that balance. Also, I ran a Technology Center at a Boy Scout Camp for 6 years, and am still involved in it today.
My personal philosophy was to introduce campers to aspects of technology that they probably wouldn't see at home or at school. My specialty is ham radio, so my center had was heavily bent toward that. Ham radio gave me a way to provide a hands on activity to scouts while teaching the basics of electronics, communications, history, ionospheric and space physics, just to name a few.
Other classes focused on electronics and soldering, astronomy, weather, nuclear science, space exploration, and computers. I'm pretty sure that many of the scouts walking through the door did not have the opportunity to use soldering irons, telescopes, and build and launch rockets at home or school. Many young people don't understand computers much beyond word processing and e-mail, so by providing any introduction into hardware fundamentals, operating systems, programming, and servers is also useful and interesting.
This is mostly a laundry list of different technology subjects, but maybe it will give you some good ideas as to what you might want to focus on.
Also, scouting makes building a curriculum easy... they have pre-defined requirements for all of their merit badges, along with very nice "pamphlets" which provide an excellent guide for completing the requirements and introducing the new topic. You can read the BSA requirements here: http://meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Merit_Badges. That and the pamphlets may be a useful resource.
One nice thing about technology is that there are often hobby organizations for each of the different subjects with people who are both skilled and willing to share time. For ham radio, visit http://www.arrl.org/ to find local clubs. Amateur astronomers and rocketeers also have similar clubs which can provide support. At my summer camp, I was able to bring in outside volunteers to provide ham radio license exams on a weekly basis, host star parties with large telescopes, and launch 6 to 8 ft tall rockets that required FAA clearance.
You may want to focus on one or two subjects to start off with. Hire the best person you can to serve as the main teacher. Hopefully this person is an excellent teacher and an expert in at least one of the subjects you are trying to focus on. Then, have them coordinate with local volunteers to enhance the program.
I hope that helps... best of luck with your camp!!!
