What I Did This Summer

 

Learning loss is a very real issue children encounter each summer. To combat this over the last few months, AlphaBEST offered various programing opportunities for children to stay engaged and excited to learn. Here’s a look at what some of them were up to this summer:

 

AlphaBEST in partnership with FableVision, launched the Going Places Summer Camp program, using best-selling author/illustrator duo Paul and Peter H. Reynolds’ book “Going Places.”

Rolled out for the first time this summer, the out-of-school time program offers engaging, immersive activities and challenges based on the book’s themes, including the critical life skills advocated by the Partnership for 21st Century Learning, known as the “4Cs”: Communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.

 

Encouraging out-of-the-box engineering and a strong focus on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math), Going Places Summer Camp programming cultivates the 4Cs, as students soar on new adventures with the book’s characters over the course of about 10 to 12 weeks.

 

Dawn Hosni, Chief Strategy Officer, AlphaBEST Education Inc., says that camps were run this summer in Texas, New Jersey, Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

 

“With the program, school districts are able to add on before- and after-care for the working parents,” said Hosni. “Going Places Summer Camp is also available as an enrichment camp, to fold into a parks & recreation program, or can be run for as few or as many weeks as needed, up to 12 weeks.”

 

Hosni adds that the program is flexible and can be used as either a full or half day.

 

“We can staff the Going Places Summer Camp programs with our own staff or provide curriculum for local teachers to implement,” said Hosni, adding that this first summer was a huge success. “In our inaugural Going Places camps over the course of this summer, our average enrollment was about 4,000 campers per week.”

 

Extended hour specialty enrichment programs led by AlphaBEST were also aplenty this summer. The programs offered, which are ideal for engaging youth and convenient for working parents, allow students to explore new interests.

 

Arlington County Parks and Recreation and Arlington Science Focus Elementary School were among them, with children being able to attend two different programs over the course of four weeks. Through this specialty programming, campers were able to enjoy Adventures in Engineering, where they turned recycled items into toys, sculptures and household objects, before constructing their own toy cars and competing in a Recycled Racer Rally. Campers in Arlington were also able to create their own clay characters and learn about basic stop-motion animation techniques—where the sky is the limit!

 

Similarly, the city of Bellevue, Washington, provided children with a variety of enrichment half-day camps for seven weeks this summer, at the Bellevue Community Center. Children were able to investigate suspicious crimes based on chemistry experiments with Chemistry Crimes, utilize simple apps to learn coding with Dash & Dot, become more familiar with basic programing with Bee Bots, and more.

Learn more about the Going Places Summer Camp program and AlphaBEST’s additional enrichment programing.