By David Harry
Staff Writer

The key to getting to the food supply on Planet Zak is helium.
At least that was the idea Tyler Liston presented during Camp Invention last week at Dora L. Small School in South Portland.
The Ohio-based summer camp program, introduced to gifted students, uses modern technology to teach problem solving and teamwork.
Corinne Altham, who integrates technology for kindergarten through second-grade students at Frank I. Brown and Small elementary schools, said the hands-on approach proved popular with students, including her daughter.
“She wants to talk about everything because so much goes on,” Altham said.
Liston and three partners found themselves marooned on the planet with a crocodile-infested swamp between them and sustenance. It was one of four scenarios and workshops the 61 students from South Portland, Westbrook and Scarborough visited throughout the week.
 “I would use a helium balloon to get over the swamp and body weight to come back down,” Liston said.
Behind him, Tucker Brooks duct-taped a bridge across the imaginary swamp and Hanna Yesse and her partners taped a cup to yardsticks to scoop food from a distance.
Students from first through sixth grades spent four days devising ways to survive on the fictional planet Zak, created amusement park rides to test the laws of physics, saved Sludge City from environmental catastrophe and tested their ingenuity in Edison’s Workshop.
In Edison’s Workshop, students took components from electronic devices to build ball-rolling machines. Their abilities delighted teacher Rosanna Mangini.
“I had never seen the insides of these things,” she said of the connectors, diodes and other materials inside DVD players, gaming devices, tape decks and boom boxes.
Students worked in groups of four and older participants had to build something that would raise a flag when the ball was done rolling.
“The younger student have great ideas, but maybe not as much confidence,” Mangini said.
Before students began working, Mangini reminded them they needed to listen to all ideas and expect some failure.
“You may not get it right first, and that’s OK,” she said. “The idea is to keep trying.”
Out in the hall, students learned physics as they twisted and taped foam pipe insulation strips to walls to find the wildest rides for marbles.
Jack Simonton, who will enter third grade at Wentworth Intermediate School in Scarborough next fall, said it was his favorite activity of the week.
“The best part is you get to test them,” he said.
Camp Invention also provided a useful introduction for Liston, Yesse and Brooks, who will enter Mahoney Middle School. They will see more curriculum in science, math, engineering and technology, called STEM teaching, when they start school in September.
A $225,000 grant from National Semiconductor in South Portland pays for a program coordinator and 10 teaching stipends for three years. The curriculum already is a part of high school classes and focuses on 21st century learning.
Altham said financial support from Time Warner Cable and Saunders Electronics was available to families that needed help with the $215 camp tuition.

Staff Writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219.