Green Bank Elementary/Middle School Hosts Math And Science Camp In June

Green Bank, Wv – Anne Smith, a science teacher at Green Bank Middle School says this years’ Math and Science Camp is ready to go.

“We’re going to be having our camp June 21st to June 24th for 8 hours a day, and from June 27th to June 30th” she says. “And eight hours sounds like a long time, but it gives us a lot of time to do things like go on field trips and do outdoor activities and do lots of cool stuff with science and math. And that’s really the focus of our camp. We want to make Math and Science fun. And all of this is free. The kids don’t have to pay for anything. We’re going to serve a snack in the morning, we’ll serve lunch, we’ll serve another snack in the afternoon,”

Smith says the camp is great fun for all involved and she would like to open it up county wide, but right now, that’s just not possible.

“The Camp is actually funded out of our RESA [RESA IV] Office in Summersville” she says. “It’s for children who have stayed after school for the After School program that RESA funds. So because of that, we can only accept children from Green Bank or home school children who go to Green Bank because of that funding issue. We’d like to eventually, maybe extend it to all the county if we can get additional funding in different places; but for right now, this year it’s only for Green Bank Kids.”

Smith says they have a bunch of different things on the agenda.

“We’re going to robotics, ceramics, nature hikes” says Smith, “we’re going to do some field trips. We’re going to have guest speakers and presenters. For the past, it’s been a lot of fun. The kids have really enjoyed it, the teachers have really enjoyed it and I’m really looking forward to doing it again.”

Smith says that kids can enroll right up to the first day. All they need is a signed permission form and to fill out an After School form. She says the kids don’t have to attend every day. They can sign up for the week of their choosing and if they don’t make it every day, it’s OK.

Smith says that there wasn’t enough money in their budget for transportation and they didn’t plan on offering it. She says School Superintendent CC Lester agreed to provide transportation for the camp.

“Mr. Lester said when he heard about the Camp and all that we were doing, he said the Board would provide bus service for the children, which is great” says Smith “So we’re going to have one bus that’s going to do the northern activity route, from Green Bank to Durbin and back. It’s going to pick up the kids in the morning, deposit them here at school of course, then pick them up in the evening and take them home.”

Smith says the program is open to any kid who attends Green Bank in grades Kindergarten thru 8th Grade. She also says that high school kids can come and help.

“We do want to open it up to high school kids for 9th to 12th graders who would like to come and help us with it; we’ll be glad to give them recommendations for college applications, scholarships” she says. “They can earn that as a community service. They would have to contact me at the school if they’re interested in that. Our first year we had our mentorship, two girls came and did their High School Mentorship with us; and did their 40 hours of work that they have to do for their High School Project.”

For Information contact Anne Smith at the Green Bank Elementary/Middle School at 304-456-4865.