Camp Kilowatt offered at middle schools
By From staff reports
Published in News on June 19, 2018 5:50 AM
Submitted photo
Camp Kilowatt director Steven Reese, center, assists students Payten Taylor, left, and Laura Mai in finding the right angle for their turbine blades to be turned by a fan breeze during a mini camp held recently for fifth-graders at Faith Christian Academy. The popular summer camp is celebrating its 10th year in the community.
The popular energy camp, Camp Kilowatt, returns to Wayne Community College this summer for its 10th year.
Nearly 120 middle schoolers from around the county are expected to attend the sessions, being held at several schools at no charge, courtesy of grant funding made available from Duke Energy.
The grant covers supplies, T-shirts and two teachers from Wayne County Public Schools plus an instructor from Wayne Community College to run the camps.
For the second year, the college is partnering with WCPS to provide the four-day sessions, which focus on STEM, or science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It will feature such projects as propeller cars, battery cars, glider planes and wind turbines, officials said.
The schedule and locations this year will be Rosewood Middle School, June 18-21; Brogden and Grantham middle schools, June 25-28; Spring Creek and Eastern Wayne middle schools, July 9-12; and Norwayne Middle School, July 16-19.
Camp Kilowatt is a product of WCC's applied technologies division and is financially supported by the Duke Energy Foundation. Steven Reese, an engineering and manufacturing instructor at WCC, is camp director.
"If a student would like to attend the camp in their area or out of the area, they can contact the school for registration," he said. "Most students attend the school but do not have to. They just have to be middle-school age."
There is a space restriction, he added, so only the first 20 applicants can be accepted at each location.
The Camp Kilowatt session to be held on the WCC campus for rising fifth- through eighth-graders will be held July 9-12, 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. A session for rising ninth- through 12th-graders will be announced later.
Participants on the college campus will explore STEM areas and work on projects similar to those offered at the schools around the county.
Mini camps that tackle a single project at a time will also be offered at Faith Christian Academy.
For information about Camp Kilowatt or any of its offerings, registration and information is available at www.waynecc.edu/campkilowatt/.
The fee is $125 and includes lunches and a T-shirt. If finances are a concern, contact Reese at srreese@wayneecu.edu or 919-739-6802 to inquire about scholarships.