News Release, Charles County Public Schools
Middle-school students unplugged for the week and got in touch with the great outdoors during Nature Inventor’s Workshop, a day camp that combines STEAM — Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math — practices with activities like fishing, canoeing and making s’mores.
Open to sixth, seventh and eighth graders, the camp is held at the Nanjemoy Creek Environmental Education Center. It includes less traditional camp activities like making kites out of trash bags, building a simple motor craft out of bamboo, rubber bands, pencils and washers, knotting a survival bracelet made of paracord and indulging in molecular gastronomy which resulted in bacon fat snow, fruit caviar and exploding bananas.
Jack Tonnessen, a Milton M. Somers Middle School seventh grader, gets an up-close look at a project during Nature Inventor’s Workshop held at the Nanjemoy Creek Environmental Education Center. 
Ada Donohue, left, a seventh grader at Milton M. Somers Middle School, and Ava Wingate, a John Hanson Middle School sixth grader, sand bamboo as part of a project during Nature Inventor’s Workshop held at the Nanjemoy Creek Environmental Education Center. 
This is the second year Eric Ghrist, a Theodore G. Davis Middle School seventh grader, signed up for camps held at Nanjemoy Creek Environmental Education Center. He counts canoeing as his favorite camp activity. 
Finnegan McCauley, a Milton M. Somers Middle School seventh grader, tests out the kite he made during Nature Inventor’s Workshop held at the Nanjemoy Creek Environmental Education Center.
“Nature Inventor’s Workshop has students using things in nature to create something,” said Jen Young, an environmental education assistant. During free time, the campers head outside to explore the forest or the ponds, catching frogs and turtles.
“I really like nature,” said Ada Donohue, a seventh grader at Milton M. Somers Middle School. “We all should learn how to help our environment and learn how to have fun … not just playing on a phone. Which is what I would be doing if I wasn’t here.”
This is the second year Eric Ghrist, a Theodore G. Davis Middle School seventh grader, attended summer camp in Nanjemoy. “I liked it and I like STEM, so, ‘Hey, why not?’” Ghrist said canoeing was one of his top activities during the week and he liked the new things he was introduced to. “Like making a kite,” he said. “I wouldn’t do that unless I was here.”
