CSI campers from Lord Selkirk school take part in science and art activities at UWinnipeg. ©UWinnipeg.
School’s out for summer, but the learning continues at The University of Winnipeg’s 10th annual summer day camp for inner-city elementary kids. The science and art camp is organized by the University’s Let’s Talk Science (LTS) Outreach Program for the Boys and Girls Club of Canada’s Community School Investigators (CSI) Summer Learning Program.
Roughly 900 kids from 14 different inner-city elementary schools are taking part in hands-on educational activities at UWinnipeg throughout July. Each school group spends one day on campus learning about chemistry, physics, biology, and art through activities like acid base tic-tac-toe, Angry Bird catapulting, biome tag, and printmaking.
A major goal of the camp is to get kids interested in science at an early age.
“Science education is so important for these curious young minds!” said Hannah Wheeler, LTS UWinnipeg camp coordinator. “Unfortunately, many schools don’t have the time or resources to provide their students with hands-on science activities. We are so thrilled to offer an exciting field trip for the CSI campers to show them that science learning can be fun and engaging.”
Wheeler has teamed up with UWinnipeg’s Gallery 1C03 this year, to add an art workshop to the programming. When the campers visit the gallery, they’re taken on a journey of selected prints, paintings and drawings from the University’s collection — with a particular focus on pieces by Indigenous artists.
The students learn through discussions about how artworks tell stories and use symbols to communicate meaning. The students then try their hand at expressing their own art by printmaking and creating works they can take home and trade with classmates.
“The CSI camp is a great way to share valuable stories that artworks in the University’s collection tell and to engage the children in responding to what they have learned in a creative way,” said Jennifer Gibson, Gallery 1C03 curator. “As an art medium, printmaking also offers connections with basic scientific principles: image transfer and spatial perception, colour mixing and more.”
The LTS camp is staffed entirely by volunteers. This summer, approximately 50 UWinnipeg students, high school students, and community members are donating their time to the program.
MEDIA CONTACTS
Hannah Wheeler, Let’s Talk Science CSI Camp Coordinator, The University of Winnipeg,
P: 204.688.0594, E: ltsuofw.csicamp@gmail.com
Eva Wasney, E-Communications Coordinator, The University of Winnipeg,
P: 204.988.7129, E: e.wasney@uwinnipeg.ca
