“I was at the Lewis-Clark State College Welcome Fair last year and an LC State student came up to me and said, ‘I know you; you taught me in Camp Invention.’” This is just one full-circle moment Rachel Jameton has experienced from being both a Camp Invention director and professor at LC State. This is just one example of LC State’s commitment to lifelong learning.
A Commitment to Learning
Lewis-Clark State College is proud to be a place where everyone can learn and grow; this learning isn’t just limited to LC State students. Summer youth camps such as Camp Invention allow LC State to help regional youth begin their lifelong learning journeys.
Camp Invention is nationwide and has been running for approximately 25 years. In the last decade, LC State has hosted camp for the LC Valley seven times, taking a break during COVID-19.
“This [camp] provides another very specific, welcoming, reason for the community to be involved on campus,” LC State professor Royal Toy said. “It’s purposeful. If we were just trying to have this program somewhere, we could. But it’s really important that it’s here because that’s what we’re about as a prior normal school.”
LC State professor Rachel Jameton with two students from Camp Invention
The camp inspires students, from kindergarten through grade six, to become more innovative, imaginative, and to think outside of the box. With content areas in photonics, sports and invention, prototyping, and hydrology, this year was no different. Students were pushed to work through failure and explore the topics through prototyping, invention, and testing their newly created systems. As a testament to resilience, students learned about the failures of those who have come before them.
Life Sciences teacher at Sacajawea Middle School, Allen Hancock said, “It’s almost overstated how many times Thomas Edison failed; but for a lot of the campers, it’s the first time they’ve heard it.”
The students began to implement and be impacted by the mindset of positive failure as they continued through the camp.
“In my specific classroom there was a 10-minute challenge every day, and in that 10 minutes they would have to build something. If something didn’t work out, or if they needed to make a change to it, I saw a lot of positivity toward them realizing they needed to make a change. So, failing or having failure wasn’t really a negative thing in the classroom,” said fifth grade teacher Hailey Ward of the Asotin-Anatone School District.
Beyond just learning how to work and grow through mistakes, Camp Invention has proven to shift a student's creativity and imagination, eventually leading them to more innovative futures. These changes are first recorded and measured one month after the camp takes place.
“All of the data [sourced from Camp Invention at large] shows that a month later families are seeing that their children display more creative and imaginative approaches to their play,” Jameton explains.
From Self to Community
Though the focus of Camp Invention is individual development, community is woven through it all — from the simplicity of meeting other students and teachers throughout the valley, to seeing the impact Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories and LC State have through investment in the next generation.
“This year, SEL provided scholarships to over half of the students who were at the camp. We are grateful for SEL’s support of parents who want their children to experience the excitement of science and engineering education but who need help affording it,” Jameton said. “LC State offers a high-quality educational experience for the lowest tuition among public four-year institutions in Idaho. So, there is a spirit of that openness here where we are an excellent educational facility for our community regardless of income level. SEL allows us to continue in that spirit and that’s really consistent with the college mission as a whole.”
Ward said LC State provided students with role models to look up to, a safe place to learn, and a means to envision themselves in a college atmosphere.
Speaking to the impact she said, “I think it allows them [students] to see more opportunity for themselves and visualize what college means or even looks like and allows them to think about the future in a college or in LCSC sooner.”
A key role model was current LC State student Grace Tiegs. Originally from Nezperce, Tiegs is studying both chemistry and computer science. Jameton is one of Tiegs professors and was the driving force behind her helping with the camp. Tiegs said it was not only great to work with her professors, but it meant a lot to be able to work with the students and talk with them about LC State. As a student employee, it was especially important to Tiegs that Camp Invention was held on campus.
LC State student Grace Tiegs with Camp Invention student
“I mean, it’s really nice to be able to do stuff like this through the school versus looking for other opportunities because I don’t know if I would’ve been able to help with the summer camp with my job,” she said. “You can tell it [camp being held on campus] really starts building the community when they’re super young, and relationships. It’s cool for the kids to get to do all this stuff.”
Tiegs recalls attending different camps hosted by LC State from when she was younger and knows firsthand the impact they can have.
A Better Tomorrow
It’s the investment in youth that influences our next innovators, teachers, nurses, and designers. LC State is committed to not only providing their education as college students but for piquing their interest as young people and providing access to lifelong learning
Hancock summed up the importance of camp by saying, “I have a friend of mine that I worked with for years and he always talked about the world's greatest resource — and the world's greatest resource is our people, our kids, our future. Being able to work together, problem-solve together, get along with each other, listen to ideas and then take the best of those ideas to go do the right thing; the kids are awesome at that, and they get all of that at camp.”