TYLER, Texas — The Discovery Science Place kicked off their summer camp season on Monday.
The facility is offering eight weeks of camps through August 9.
"I'm a big science fan," 10-year-old camper Zane Holt said. "I do a lot of things like that, and I just thought I'd give it a try. It's been great."
Each summer, the DPS draws in droves of children from kindergarten through sixth grade.
"We get to make lava lamps, slime, and robots," Holt said.
Each week the camp provides a different experience for the campers.
"The first time I came to camp, me and my sister built a lion and we got to make it move, and there's a voice thing that you can do on the computer and it makes it roar," camper Kailen Jackson said.
The first camp, Vex Robotics, will be offered this week and the week of July 15.
"We have our maker space camp where the kids will be making like paper airplanes or vortex cannons," Education Director Tim Kennedy said. "We'll make Alka-Seltzer rockets. We also have a our curiosity space camp."
First, the DSP will offer a Make: Create camp from June 17 - June 21 and again, from July 29 - August 1. A 3-D modeling camp, featuring Minecraft, is scheduled for July 8 - July 12 and July 22 - July 26. The final camp, Kitchen Chemistry, is scheduled for August 5 - August 9.
"There's a thing called summer slump, where kids do not retain information that they've learned through the school year, so if you keep them engaged and keep their brain working, studies have shown that they continue to retain that information during the school year," Kennedy said.
Kennedy says this is the only opportunity that many of the campers will get hands-on experience in the different areas of science. It is not just about being creative and having fun, they also aim to keep the minds of the children sharp while they engage in a stress-free environment.
"We don't have any testing in our camps," Kennedy said. "So, they just get to be curious and play. And for kids this age, play is learning."
For more information on the camps, visit the DSP's website.