Among the multiple activities, the Summer Inspiration Program has in stock is a camp that specifically targets intellectual challenges.
The Mindblowing Mysteries camp at Putnam County Middle School teaches students problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.
“When I was in seventh grade, I took a critical-thinking class,” camp instructor Alexandria Smith said. “It was like escape rooms and scavenger hunts and it was really interesting because you got to see everyone working differently. You learned to get around the problem, to figure out the clues.”
With a feeling that critical thinking class wasn’t taught in the same style anymore, Smith said she felt kids should go through the same exciting experience as she did.
“It was something that I really liked. It was one of the classes I really stuck with,” she said.
Smith explained the morning at Mindblowing Mysteries usually starts with a logic puzzle as a warm-up. Campers receive a sheet of paper with clues that they have to analyze and make conclusions about using the elimination process.
They also do physical breakouts; for example, getting a box locked with a coded lock. They get a set of keys to unlock it, which they have to figure out.
“I like everything about this camp,” said seventh-grader David Lyons-Johnson. “I like it because it’s really challenging.”
Sometimes the campers are split into two teams and do activities as a competition. They also play a lot of board games and participate in online escape room games at breakoutedu.com, a website that requires a paid subscription but offers a lot of educational games for students of all grade levels.
“I use my brain a lot,” said Erin Butts, another seventh grader. “Playing board games is my favorite activity. I like the computer one, but you have to know what you are doing.”
Smith is a rising junior at Putnam County High School who hopes to eventually become a pediatric registered nurse. She said she feels her experience as a camp instructor offers great value toward achieving that goal.
The culmination of the camp is a planned trip to an escape room in Athens.