Experience Experiencia
Kids become scientists and business people in interactive camps
Elizabeth Held
7/23/2007
Photos courtesy of Experiencia
At Exchange City, kids learn about supply and demand, laws and finance. EarthWorks, below, allows kids to interact with different animals and learn about nature.
Your kids can interact with 100 different animals, travel to Mars to learn about gravity and conduct experiments to try to solve ecological problems. But if science isn’t their passion, perhaps they’d rather run their own business or produce TV segments.
At EarthWorks and Exchange City, kids can do all this and more. These two week-long Experiencia, Inc. camps, offered throughout the summer and during winter and spring breaks, transform kids into scientists, producers and consumers. The staff supervises the activities, but the kids really run the show.
"My kids can’t stop raving about it and always want to go back," says Chris Kopka, a Buffalo Grove mom whose two kids, ages 6 and 10, have attended the camps. "They don’t think of it as learning. For them, it’s just a fun place to go with lots of animals."
The camps are located in a 25,000-square-foot learning center. A lake, forest, prairie and cave make up EarthWorks and a mini city with 14 businesses makes up Exchange City. The summer camps are compressed versions of the eight-week school-year simulation.
"We want this to be an exciting way to make education entertaining and hands-on," says Howard Tullman, CEO of Experiencia. "We want these kids to go back to their schools and brag about their experience."
Kopka says she was drawn to the camps’ educational benefits and staff when she decided to enroll her kids in EarthWorks.
"It isn’t a day camp whose staff turns over every year," says Kopka. "These people are invested in getting kids to learn the messages the camp wants to teach."
For more information about Experiencia, including their recently added fall weekend workshops, visit www.experiencia-world.com.
Keywords: august 2007