As managing editor of Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kan., is offering a new "Plastic is Fantastic" camp for kids this week, according to this feature in the Pittsburg Morning Sun.
Paul Herring, Plastic is Fantastic camp instructor, said the camp is intended to combine fun and math to create a hands-on learning experience."We want to give them an understanding of how math and science are used in technology," Herring said. "We have had the kids use their math skills to help us calculate material usage and prices. We have also had them on the computers and we've used the rapid prototyping machine in the lab. So they have been able to experience a lot of different things."
On Wednesday, the students were in the computer lab creating computer-generated car designs that they will use to make a mold form and a plastic car.
This is the first year for the camp, which costs $90 per child, according to the university's Web site. Herring told the newspaper that the camp had a good turn-out for the first year, and he hopes to continue the program in the future. "This is just another opportunity for kids to become interested in science and learn how math and science are used to create everyday things," Herring said.
Who knows, maybe the camp will encourage a future Stan Gault or Jon Huntsman to enter the plastics industry.
Do any other schools offer plastics-related camps? Do you wish you could have gone to plastics camp when you were a kid?