Catapults and stomp rockets... for science!

As cars drove by the suburban house, all drivers saw were kids flinging things into the air. Hacky Sacks dropped from the sky, hitting the road, the lawn across the street, even the roof of the house.

It was the last day of science camp and Bill Burch was demonstrating how medieval warfare worked — no cars or property were harmed during the experiment.

He spoke of moats, sieges and catapults. He drew pictures, gave examples and asked questions of the crowd — his audience comprised of 12 kids, ranging from third grade through sixth grade.

It was the last day of Summer Science Exploratory Camp, and everyone was excited about the day’s experiments. They had learned about volume and buoyancy when they made concrete boats that actually floated, and they learned about levers and angles when they shot slings and catapults across the lawn.

This is the 18th summer camp Burch has instructed. A fourth-grade teacher at Atlas Elementary School, he started bringing home science equipment and experiment materials every time the school changed its curriculum, which he said was almost every year for a while.

“Every year I’d go out and buy materials for these new concepts and they’d get thrown out, so I’d have all these materials left over,” he said. “I have a basement full of science stuff.”

With all the fun things piled in his basement, he decided to put it to good use. The first summer he held the camp, he only had four students. Now it has grown to host around 12 students per camp.

Each summer he holds two five-day camps at his house, using his garage as a work space and his yard as testing grounds.

“Every year I go online and look for something to add and something to drop,” Burch said. “This year it was stomp rockets, and those were a big hit.”

Other experiments he has done with the camp include testing rockets to see if they need wings and testing diapers to see which ones could absorb the most water.

“My favorite part of camp, I like everything we do so it’s hard to say,” said Fiona Michael, a fourth-grader at Sorensen Elementary School. “Every day there’s something new, all of it’s really fun.”

Burch said he started the camp out of a love for science and teaching kids. He fears kids think science is limited because of the way it had to be taught in a classroom.

“There is so much to science; engineering, math, comparing things,” he said. He’s proud of the camp he’s created. “It’s an exposure to the scientific process and hopefully tapping their curiosity about things.”