Whether it was creating a robot, a rolling vehicle, a design constructed of paper or a marble maze roller coaster, each of the 220 students participating in the first annual Thingamajig Convention Challenge had fun and discovered the joy of inventing.
Using a grant from the Y of USA, Andrea Rathi, program director for the YMCA of Mount Madonna, launched the event July 27 at this year’s Super Power Summer Camp.
“The idea is that kids are supposed to invent, have fun, and be creative,” Rathi said.
Amanda Reedy, administrator of after-school programs for Gilroy Unified School District, explained that supporting students through learning opportunities that build confidence, self-sufficiency, academic success, and social responsibility, is the program’s mission.
“It’s not like school, the whole point is that it’s not. We try to make it fun,” she said.
Fun is exactly what the fourth- and fifth-graders from El Roble and Antonio Del Buono elementary school campsites had when they participated in a test run of the Challenge event.
Rathi hopes to secure Christopher High School as the venue for next year’s convention, allowing enough space for all Super Power Summer Camp students to attend.
“I definitely love this program because of the impact it has on our community, and the fact that our students are able to flourish in different ways than they would in school.”
The Thingamajig Convention, created 22 years ago by the Washington, D.C., YMCA, and adopted all throughout the U.S., is a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) festival, where kids design their own experience.
The two hundred-plus kids spent weeks designing and perfecting their inventions, culminating with the Thingamajig Convention, where first, second and third place prizes were awarded in eight categories.
“I like this competition, and I don’t care if I win or I lose. Next time you could win,” said Melissa Ramirez, 9, about her entry of a birdhouse in the category called If I Could Be An Inventor, where participants created their own inventions.
Other categories included Cool Ride (self-propelled rolling vehicles); Paper Made (eco-friendly inventions made completely out of paper); Paper Fashion (crafting a fashionable outfit from paper); Flying High (airborne inventions) and, Marble Mania Bonus Challenge (designing and building a roller coaster).
The guidelines were that the inventions must be crafted by either an individual or a team of three; no pre-made kits were allowed; all materials used were recycled items, and the budget for each project was $20 or less.
According to Eva Campuzano, camp director of Super Power Summer Camp at El Roble Elementary School, Rathi has a hit on her hands.
“It’s going great, I love how engaged all these students are,” she said. There’s no misbehaving, they’re keeping busy in there, creatively. I love that there are no set rules on what they could do, we just stand back and let them go.”
Rathi herself was more than pleased to see the kids’ smiles as the day progressed.
“The smile is what we always aim for, that’s how we know that we’re doing a good job,” Rathi said.
The summer camp has always included a weekly visit to the Gilroy Library, and this year was no exception. But on the day of the challenge, the librarians visited the kids.
Earlier this year, librarian Kelly McKean received the Pacific Library Partnership grant from Santa Clara County Library District, which funded McKean’s Introduction to Robotics Program, geared to children of all ages.
“It fit in so perfectly with our robotics curriculum,” librarian Sharon Kelly said of the challenge event. Kelly served as a judge in the Amazing Robot category.
“I thought it was a perfect collaboration between what they were trying to do, and what we were trying to do.”
