Summer camps picking up STEAM, solving crimes in 2011

This summer, The Lutheran Schools Partnership will provide fun and exciting learning opportunities to nearly 100 students in grades three through eight during four STEAM camps at two area Lutheran schools. STEAM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. Offered from June 27 through July 1, the half-day camps will feature a CSI-themed, kid-friendly version of crime-scene investigation. Students in grades three through five (apprentices) will analyze fingerprints and soil samples, explore voice prints and blood spatter patterns, and use online tools for data collection.Students in grades six through eight (lead investigators) will extract DNA, attempt ink chromatography, conduct handwriting analysis and flame tests, and create online databases for the clues found.The camps are open to all area students, but enrollment is limited to 24 students in each of the four camps. Both morning and afternoon camps will take place at Suburban Bethlehem Lutheran School, 6318 West California Road, and at Emmaus Lutheran School, 8626 Covington Road. “We’re really looking forward to these camps,” says Mark Muehl, director of The Lutheran Schools Partnership. “We know the kids will have a blast while gaining significant knowledge.”For more information and to register for the STEAM camps, go to www.cuw.edu/STEAM, or call Muehl at (260) 241-4845.The STEAM camps are a collaboration joining The Lutheran Schools Partnership and Concordia University–Wisconsin. Lead teachers from the two hosting schools will visit the university for training before the camps.“Concordia University–Wisconsin has offered these camps in Milwaukee and Chicago, and they’re eagerly looking forward to their success here in Fort Wayne,” Muehl says.“ Concordia University played a big role in our annual IMPACT teacher-training week last year, and we’ve developed a very productive relationship with the university.”The STEAM camps are being made possible through a $12,700 grant recently received from the Talent Initiative, which is striving to further project-based leaning (PBL) and science, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in northeast Indiana.