Tag Archives: National Inventors Hall of Fame

02.14.25
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Camp Invention Returns to TNCS for Summer 2025!

When The New Century School first debuted its lineup of summer programming in 2012, Baltimore City summer campers had never seen the like. With hands down the most varied and engaging lineup of camps around (if not anywhere), TNCS ensured that no “summer slide” would affect its campers!

This year, TNCS is thrilled to welcome back Camp Invention® from July 14th –July 18th, one of the most popular camps in TNCS’s summer camp history. (Who are we kidding—they’re all great. Scroll to the end for past summer camp blogs and be amazed.) The photos in the slideshow below are from Camp Invention® at TNCS in summer 2014.

In response to being asked what he liked most about Camp Invention, this camper said, “We get to take things apart and then make new things!” (He never looked up from his engrossing project!)
What did this happy camper like best about Camp Invention? “Making stuff!”
A hand-drawn Camp Invention logo and motto inspires TNCS inventors.
The design station beckons!
Miss Fanta guides a team in constructing their pinbug machine.
Team Rollie Pollie from the orange group collaborated on a pinbug machine.
Mrs. Jacoby helps a member of Team Rollie Pollie strengthen their pinbug machine casing.

Sponsored by none other than the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Camp Invention® bills itself as, “A STEM Summer Camp for Grades K-6 That Turns Curious Kids Into Innovative Thinkers” . . . and we have to agree.

Even better, TNCS K–8 Resource Teacher Bailey Miller will be directing the camp this July! “Miss Bailey,” as she is know around campus, is also the assistant teacher in Mr. Warren’s K–2 classroom. In addition, she works in daily aftercare with TNCS primary students as well as provides after-school math tutoring.

“I’m excited to be directing Camp Invention® this summer! said Miss Bailey. “My background is in science education, so helping kids tap into passion and creativity when it comes to STEM makes me especially happy.”

The theme this year is “Discover,” which aims to inspire curiosity and help campers build essential STEM skills through collaboration with friends and creative problem-solving experiences. “[They will] explore hands-on challenges and open-ended adventures designed to encourage new discoveries and bring big ideas to life!”

Miss Bailey shared her thoughts about Camp Invention® :

I appreciate that Camp Invention® is all about exploring the wonders of the world—both natural and human-made. Kids get to dive into big ideas, ask questions like scientists, and solve problems like engineers. Whether they’re tackling everyday mysteries or coming up with creative solutions to new challenges, they see that wonders aren’t just something to admire—they’re something to explore, understand, and even improve upon. Children are naturally inquisitive and imaginative, and this camp helps them foster that creativity while having fun thinking like inventors. This summer, I hope we help kids see that STEM is for everyone. I want them to discover that science and engineering are doable, approachable, and fun. My goal is for campers to get so immersed that they start looking at the world through a new analytical lens—seeing problems as puzzles to solve and everyday discoveries as possibilities to explore.

For anyone who remains unconvinced, if that’s possible, one of this summer’s activities is building your own claw machine! Mic drop! There’s also designing optical illusions, exploring penguins in Antarctica, and a whole lot more that, as Camp Invention® puts it, “[add] up to an imagination-stretching, confidence-boosting summer!”

To register for Camp Invention® at TNCS (7/14–7/18), go to: https://www.invent.org/programs/camp-invention.

For all other TNCS Summer Camps, beginning Monday, June 9, 2025, click here! Register by March 25, 2025 and save $25/week with the Early Bird Discount!

Past Camp Inventions® at TNCS:

Other Past TNCS Summer Camps:

05.10.13
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Camp Invention Returns to TNCS in June

Does the thought of summer-long video games give you a headache? Do you find the notion of watching the antics of mutant turtles—ninja or otherwise—a little creepy? Does the prospect of relinquishing your child to 9 weeks of these frequently vapid pursuits fill you with dread?

Parents, despair no longer: enroll your boys and girls entering grades 1 through 6 in Camp Invention this summer and give them the opportunity to explore, create, invent, and have loads of active, imaginative fun! Important: your child does not need to be enrolled at TNCS to join—this is a community-wide opportunity. Nationally acclaimed Camp Invention is a week-long summer day program, the brainchild of the National Inventors Hall of Fame in partnership with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Presenting kids with real-world challenges that encourage them to solve problems and present their solutions through themed, scientific, engaging hands-on investigation, the program integrates four key components:

1. STEM enrichment: These four vital education areas—Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math—are explored via hands-on, creative problem-solving activities. Camp Invention inspires kids to be curious about their world and prepares them for a future of responsible, engaged participation within it.

2. Consistent and effective implementation: Programs are all-inclusive; Camp Invention provides curricula and step-by-step instructions for the TNCS instructors to follow as well as training and all program materials. This ensures that programs are carried out correctly and consistently, maximizing the benefits to participants.

3. Collaboration and other 21st-century skills: Working in teams, children are presented with real-world challenges that promote the direct application of critical thinking and communication skills demanded by colleges, careers, and citizenship in the 21st century.

4. Teacher and student development: Teachers gain direct, reproduceable experience in how to integrate STEM content in daily lessons and beyond. Kids benefit from the student-centered approach to learning; they are led by their own desire to solve the presented problem, to see it through.

Camp Invention Comes to TNCS!

Camp Invention is returning to TNCS for Summer 2013! Enroll for June 17–21!

The honor of hosting this exciting exploration is reserved for only about 1,200 schools nationwide, and TNCS has earned the distinction of being the only location in the downtown Baltimore area to host the camp this summer. Says TNCS Summer Camp Director Lisa Warren, “We got first dibs—it’s a great honor for us to be hosting it here for the second year!”

TNCS’s Camp Invention session will be held during the week of June 17–21, and camp runs for a full day, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. This year’s program theme is CREATE, which features four modules the kids cycle through each day: Problem Solving on Planet ZAK, SavingSludge City, I Can Invent: Launchitude, and Geo-Games (click the CREATE link above to read more about what skills and learning each module focuses on). Each one promises some really wacky fun, including re-engineering household items to create the ultimate Rubber Duck–Chucking Device, for example. What kid isn’t going to love that? Best of all, they’re using scientific principles in actual applications. These lessons will stick. Or fly, as the case may be. Even kids who have previously participated in Camp Invention will benefit from brand new adventures throughout the week.

Space is still available! To register your child for Camp Invention at TNCS, click here!

Summer camp at TNCS

Enriching summertime activities make happy kids!

Other specialty summer camps open to the public are also available at TNCS, including Lego + Brain Games, Drama, Music, Mandarin Immersion, Painting, and Launch Pad Academic Bridge Camps, as well as camps for younger children. As we wrote in “Making Summer Count—Weekly Camps at TNCS,” using summertime to learn while having fun will enrich them academically throughout their school careers.

To register for any TNCS camp, click here.

Mandarin immersion camp

Don’t let the important skills your child has practiced all year atrophy over summer—keep them happy and engaged at TNCS summer camp!