Broadcast: July 15, 2004
This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report.
Millions of American children attend summer camp. Most summer camps teach swimming and sports. But some are designed to teach special skills.
One of these is Concordia Language Villages camp in the state of Minnesota. Campers there learn to speak a foreign language without the use of books or teachers. The counselors speak the language all the time and show the campers what to do. The campers learn the language by watching and hearing the words. One student at the German camp said she experienced what it would be like to be in Germany.
Colleges and universities organize other learning camps. Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois offers a week long experience called “Summer Wings Camp.” The camp is held at the Southern Illinois Airport. Campers learn about the history of flight and experience what an airplane pilot does.
At Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, students can take part in a two-week camp that teaches astronomy. They observe sunspots, for example, and study the motion of planets and stars.
The Pennsylvania State University offers many summer programs. One camp this summer taught about what it is like to be a weather expert or meteorologist. Students at Weather Camp learned how tornadoes form. And they learned how to present weather information on television.
Another Penn State summer program was Nursing Camp. Students in this program took part in different emergency situations and learned how to treat injuries. The students carried out first aid skills on life-like dolls in a laboratory. They also learned cardio pulmonary resuscitation, how to start a heart that has stopped beating. And they learned how to help people in a medical emergency.
Another skills camp is organized by businesses. Camp CEO is a one-week program in the state of Arizona for fifty teen-age girls. At the camp, they link with successful businesswomen who are chief executive officers in different industries. The girls build a business. They also take part in a special outdoor exercise to develop communication and trust. Officials at Camp CEO say the experience is unlike any other kind of camp operating today.
This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Bob Doughty.