Summer Camp 2026 - Science Week

Science Week at EAPS Summer Camp was filled with experiments and plenty of creative sparks! This week, our campers explored the exciting places where art, science, and engineering come together through painting, sculpture, construction, and experimentation.

We kicked off the week by painting colorful rainbow ceramic vases while learning about the science behind rainbows. Campers explored light, the color spectrum, and refraction, discovering how sunlight and water work together to create the rainbows we see in the sky.

Next, we dove into geology and sculpted our own clay volcanoes using coil and slab handbuilding techniques. Campers learned how volcanoes form and erupt before imagining their own volcanic islands and surrounding landscapes. We even explored chemical reactions, using baking soda and vinegar to bring our volcanoes to life!

For our next project, we zoomed WAY in to explore the microscopic world of germs and microbes, learning how they look, how they spread, and just how many tiny organisms exist all around us. We then explored the work of contemporary artist Klari Reis, whose colorful, abstract artworks are inspired by microscopic imagery and created in Petri dishes. Drawing inspiration from her work, campers created their own vibrant Petri dish-inspired artworks using cut paper and watercolor. With science droppers in hand, they experimented with wet-on-wet painting and discovered how water, alcohol, and salt interact with paint to move pigments and create fascinating, microbe-like textures and patterns.

We continued our experiments with optical illusions, creating spinning tops covered in different patterns. Once the tops began to spin, campers could watch their static designs seemingly move, blend, and transform right before their eyes!

Next, we learned about memory and spatial awareness and how scientists have used mice navigating mazes to study learning and problem-solving. Campers became engineers as they constructed their own elaborate mazes with pipe-cleaner walls, twists, turns, obstacles, and plenty of inventive surprises. They even sculpted tiny mice and attached magnets so they could guide their mice through their finished mazes from underneath!

Our exploration of perception continued with a lesson on perspective and vanishing points in art. Campers designed their own art gallery hallways, using perspective and distortion to create the illusion of three-dimensional spaces disappearing into the distance.

For our final project, we explored electricity, batteries, and circuits. Campers designed their own circuit-board artworks and constructed working miniature lamps using copper tape, batteries, and LED lights. There was nothing better than watching those little bulbs illuminate when their circuits successfully connected!

And, of course, no Science Week would be complete without a few mad scientists! Campers designed their own wacky scientist characters and put them to the test in a very silly scientist race.

From erupting volcanoes and microscopic worlds to optical illusions, engineering challenges, and glowing circuits, it was an incredible week of watching creativity spark curiosity in our campers. We loved seeing them experiment, problem-solve, ask questions, and discover that art and science aren’t separate worlds—they can inspire some pretty amazing things when we bring them together!