Children interested in everything from the properties of cornflour to the growth of peas would enjoy these science camps, writes SYLVIA THOMPSON
A GROUP OF seven-to-12-year-old boys and girls are busy trying to get drinks cans to balance on their edges. It works with just the right amount of liquid inside but their task is to calculate the minimum and maximum weight of water with which the cans will stay balanced. There’s great excitement as the children call out figures, trying to beat each other with their calculations.
Around the room at Airfield Urban Farm in the Dublin suburb of Dundrum are other experiments the children did earlier in the week. There’s the man with the grass head – made from knotted tights with wood shavings and grass seed on top which, when watered, will become his hair. There’s the homemade plastic made from milk and vinegar and then the peas with or without water, air and light – to discover what’s essential for growth. Later the children will find out how physically strong jelly sweets are and learn the different properties of flour, cornflour, cream of tartar and icing sugar.
Who ever thought science could be such fun? Christine Campbell is the founder of the Anyone4Science camps, taking place in 16 venues throughout Ireland this summer. With five teams, scattered from Tipperary to Louth, it’s her busiest year since she started six years ago.
“I’ve a degree in chemistry and I worked in industry for 20 years, and then set up a computer training business so I could work from home,” explains Campbell. “I started doing computer camps but they learned it so fast I had to add web design and German as extras. Then, I thought I should add science, and now I just do science camps and school visits during the year.” She made the right decision if the children at the Anyone4Science camp at Airfield are representative.
It’s genuinely pleasing as a parent to watch children of primary school age engrossed in hands-on experiments and asking intelligent questions of the camp organisers.
“It’s a really good camp. This week we’ve learned about plastics and later we will make a machine that can lift grown-ups,” says Filippo (11) who is attending his third Anyone4Science camp. “I liked the dyed flowers,” says Callum (8), who is on his second camp.
Virginia (12) is here on holidays from Italy. “It’s fun. Science is very good in Ireland and it helps me speak English,” she says. Campbell says she often has a few foreign students at camp, as well as Irish children who live abroad and are back home for the summer.
Sean McKay, who has just completed his Leaving Certificate, has been helping his mum with the camps since she first started. “All the children who come to the camps have a specific interest in science,” he says. “They like getting up and doing things themselves but I’d say that those aged seven and upwards get the most out of it.”
Anyone4Science Summer Camps run from Monday to Friday, 10am-2pm in various venues in August. €160 per week.
Tel. 0404-40563, anyone4science.com
