University Park, Pa. -- Summer camp brings to mind swimming, hiking, campfires and other outdoor activities. But for 54 high school students visiting Penn State, summer camp meant learning how to design buildings and landscapes.
Those students participated in Penn State's Architecture and Landscape Architecture Camp, held July 12 - 16 on the University Park campus. The camp was a collaboration between Penn State's Department of Outreach and Cooperative Extension and the College of Arts and Architecture. Guided by faculty and teaching assistants from the H. Campbell and Eleanor R. Stuckeman School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, camp participants learned about computer drafting and design, hands-on building, and model-making. The camp schedule included a field trip to Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob, a visit to a local architectural engineering firm, and a tour of the Penn State Millennium Science Center construction site, among other activities. The week concluded with an exhibition and presentation of final projects that the campers completed during studio workshops.
The camp, now in its sixth year, is aimed at students interested in architecture, landscape architecture, architectural engineering, construction management and related fields.
"A primary goal of the Department of Architecture was to reach out to inner-city high schools or otherwise under-represented high school students to inform them of opportunities in the architecture profession," said Lisa Iulo, assistant professor of architecture and camp coordinator.
Since its establishment in 2004, yearly enrollment in the camp has more than doubled. This summer's participants came from as far as California, Canada, Nicaragua and El Salvador, in addition to Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey.
For more information, visit http://www.outreach.psu.edu/youth/architecture/ online, or contact Flora Marynak, by e-mail at fwm1@psu.edu or by phone at (814) 863-0621.