Students Explore Space Travel, Engineering, and More in Virtual QUEST Camp

Hosted virtually this year, the program mixes synchronous sessions, asynchronous activities, and pre-recorded videos to give boys and girls the fun, engaging experience they would usually get on campus. Each day begins with a virtual group meeting and welcome for all instructors and students, followed by project blocks when students dig into the day’s activity.

 

Throughout the first two weeks, which focused on engineering, these blocks have been used to build incredible balloon rockets, design amazing catapults and ziplines, and apply interesting concepts like kinetic energy and Newton’s Laws of Motion. Later this month, they’ll be used to explore transportation, urban development, and innovative spacecraft as our boys and girls expand into space travel, architecture, and city planning.

 

In addition to brainstorming designs and construction, students are encouraged to look back at their work, analyze any potential challenges, and consider redesigns and solutions they can then contribute to synchronous group discussions.

 

After these daily projects are complete, students branch out into elective activities like chess, art, yoga, and drama. On Fridays, they’re also invited to take part in self-guided virtual tours of locations like Machu Picchu and The Louvre – which replace in-person field trips typically held throughout Maryland.

 

Supplies for all daily and weekly projects were safely distributed via car pick up in June, with each box containing common building materials (including rubber bands, balloons, cardboard, paper cups, and duct tape) and a composition notebook for students to record their findings.

 

Summer QUEST is part of the Middle Grades Partnership (MGP), a program designed to forge connections between public and private school communities in Baltimore. It is free for registered Calvert Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Graders. This year’s offerings conclude on Friday, July 24.