New Canaan Public School's summer camp in Connecticut has a mission: Reach for the summer stars. Designing projects around Howard Gardner's seven multiple intelligences, we—three teachers and a math coordinator with the support of a school principal—shared a vision. We have created a one-week summer camp where children can tap into their unique strengths. Recently, we added the eighth intelligence, the naturalist, to the camp's repertoire.
Now in its third year, the Summer Stars Program allows children ages 7-12 to choose materials and activities from many different topics and to participate in one of three internships: the Challenger Mission at the Bridgeport Discovery Museum, the Sea Voyage at the Norwalk Maritime Center, or simulated flight training at the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation in Stratford. Gardner best states the spirit of the theory and how it applies to the Summer Stars Program (Armstrong 1994): From my perspective, the essence of the theory is to respect the many differences among people, the multiple variations in the ways that they learn, the several modes by which they can be assessed, and the almost infinite number of ways in which they can leave a mark on the world.
In an innovative way, the camp respects children's multiple intelligences and problem-solving competencies and their potential to maximize their multiple "smarts." Projects include: producing a handcrafted bound book, writing musical compositions, constructing rockets, building block structures from students' blueprints, writing and illustrating a camp newsletter, and reinventing stories to tell at the closing ceremony. In addition, children work on motion experiments, prepare astronaut food, produce and act in plays, and design T-shirts.
Daily journal entries at the end of each day provide feedback, such as: "Today was fantastic! Camp is a different experience for me. I learn a lot and still have fun, which is unusual." On the last afternoon of camp, all experiences are showcased at our "museum" and closing ceremonial activities. At the end, one parent wrote: Alex taught me (again) that she thrives on an opportunity to experiment and investigate and create and grow! She had a wonderful week and was full of enthusiastic descriptions of the treasure hunts, field trips, alien creations, and games. Hope you can all do it again next year.
A Closer View
A typical day varies for each camper who attends the program at New Canaan High School. At preregistration, students and their parents receive a choice of activities, so that students can design their own schedules. A wide selection of sessions makes it possible to address all the multiple intelligences—each session promoting many intelligences.
At 9 a.m. on the first day, after designing their own name tags, children mingle during the icebreaker activity. One of our favorite games is Musical Planets, a modern-day version of Musical Chairs, where hula hoops are positioned around the floor and only two campers can occupy a hoop when the music stops.
After our icebreaker, the first of the day's four courses begin. Campers who select Block Building—an activity in visual-spatial intelligence—enter a room supplied with a wide selection and quantity of unit blocks. Using interpersonal cooperation, children of all ages together build a tall structure that almost reaches the ceiling. In another popular activity, Marble Shoots, they apply the various laws of physics.
A more difficult block activity involves developing architectural plans, building a structure in small groups, and using construction paper on poster board to represent the structure. At this point, another group tries to replicate the original structure—now taken apart—using the original plans as its only guide. We realize through children's enthusiasm for block building that kids need not leave blocks behind in kindergarten, but can learn with them at all instructional levels.
After a quick snack, the campers move to News in Print and Broadcast, where they capture moments in pictures, videos, interviews, and newsletters. Each child has a job as either a reporter, a photographer, or the computer expert in charge of the layout. Verbal-linguistic intelligence is the primary intelligence used here, as it would be if our camper chose Storytelling, offered at the same time. Using pop-up books based on the original story, students develop stories in an activity that taps their visual-spatial intelligence.
At Adventures in Rocketry, one of the final morning activities, campers assemble and launch different kinds of rockets, such as the ARV (Atmospheric Research Vehicle) Condor; the Abloid "Egg-Drop" rocket; a Challenger prototype with rocket boosters; and the Astrocam rocket that can take pictures during flight. Children with language difficulties learn to read complicated instruction sheets to enable them to launch their rockets on the final day.
At this time, everyone regroups for lunch and to listen to a speaker. Today, our visitor is Dr. Haik Kavookjian, an orthopedic surgeon from Stamford. He talks to the children about a project he was involved in where they put chickens in space to study the effects of weightlessness on bones.
After a short rest, some of the campers head to Space Adventure, which addresses almost all of the multiple intelligences. Children begin by researching information on the planets. They then divide into small groups and receive 15 feet of adding machine tape, markers, a measuring tape, and measurements. The children place the sun at one end of the tape and then position the planets on the tape in proper order—each sphere drawn to scale. This tape becomes a blueprint for a larger solar system that they will paint on the school's blacktop playground.
At this point, all the campers report to control center for a time to reflect in their journals, some now wearing T-shirts that they designed or humming a tune from Close Encounters Music, where they create melodies on computers.
At 2 p.m., the day ends and counselors say farewell to their campers. Sessions continue until the fourth day when students go on the field trip that they selected—to the museum, the maritime center, or the aircraft corporation. On the final day, children attend morning sessions and spend the afternoon celebrating the week's experiences.
Trial and Error
Forty-five students attended our first summer camp program. A few children had severe language delays, one had a muscular-neurological disorder, and several were identified as gifted and talented. A gender imbalance (35 males to 10 females) concerned us, so we sought advice from Gardner, who recommended that for the second summer we should include the naturalist intelligence to draw more females and their friends.
The second year we added a sea voyage internship at the Norwalk Maritime Center and a marine biology class, which improved our male-female ratio to 55 males and 32 females. Adjustments and further training of the staff in multiple intelligence appreciation rounded out our changes.
We needed to address another element, however: aligning the summer camp, multiple intelligence theory, and application to the home. In the first year, we explained the theory and application to children but not to parents. Ellison (1992) reports that parents develop an increased respect for their child's abilities when the abilities have the status of intelligences.
As we proposed our second-year changes, we realized that parents learned about multiple intelligences through their child's camp experiences, and we wanted to give them more information about the goal and mission of the camp. We fostered their understanding through articles, workshops, and video presentations. After our first summer camp experience, we were confident that the multiple intelligences theory in practice positively affected children's perspective of how they were smart and increased their success. Our main goal in the second year: to narrow the gap between the parents' understanding of multiple intelligences and campers' perceived notions about their own intellectual strengths.
Home Linkage Results
Thomas Armstrong (1994a) states, "The theory of multiple intelligences can serve as a template in constructing strategies for student success." After developing our own instrument for collecting data, we analyzed information from parents and children prior to and after the camp experience. Using this pre- and postcamp instrument, we surveyed all 97 parents about their understanding of and responses to multiple intelligence theory. We also studied the children's perceptions of how they learned best and how they learned least well. In addition, the study examined parents' perceptions of how their children learn best and least well.
Before the camp season started, parents received general information about the multiple intelligence theory and a copy of an article by Armstrong, "Multiple Intelligences: Seven Ways to Approach Curriculum" (1994b). We also asked parents to fill in their own questionnaire that rated the way their child initially approaches a new task. To gain deeper understanding from the child's perspective, we randomly selected 10 percent of the children for an in-depth interview conducted on the final day of camp.
Our surveys suggest conclusively that our camp's application of multiple intelligence theory positively affects children's understanding of their perceived "smarts," promotes risk-taking, and closes the gap between parents' and students' understanding of the theory.
In our next step, we analyzed whether parents and children agreed on the child's best and least well modes of intelligences; in 75 percent of the cases, we observed strong agreement. At times when parents and children differed in perceptions, we wondered whether the child didn't see his or her talent area the way the parent perceived it or vice-versa. Moreover, we asked ourselves whether the parents and children could have misunderstood the language of the survey or whether we needed to provide more information about the theory.
Looking Ahead
Our research was not sophisticated in design or statistical outcome, but allowed us to explore areas that few classroom teachers enter. We learned that by allowing children to make their own educational choices, they are more highly motivated, satisfied, fulfilled, and successful. The children at the camp tended to choose courses that were directly related to their stronger intelligences or the best way they learned.
Trends became apparent during camp scheduling. For instance, most of our campers who were interested in the Challenger mission were also interested in rocketry and block building. They also chose math-logical and visual-spatial as their best intelligences on their interviews and surveys. Naturalists who wanted to study oceanography also chose the verbal-linguistic activities such as storytelling, news in print, and broadcasting.
During the three years, 99 percent of campers were very satisfied with their course selections, although one or two students asked to switch classes. Most of the children came to camp confident in their choices and eager to participate in the activities. The feeling of ultimate success might be attributed to the "template of multiple intelligence theory."
In the future, we hope to keep improving and refining our product. We are redesigning our camp's brochure for clarity and understanding. We will continue to promote gender equity and develop strategies to inform and educate parents and campers on multiple intelligence theory. Through workshops, video presentations, articles, books, and teacher-led research, we will be able to communicate more effectively to parents, children, and the community. A reevaluation of our course offerings will be an essential part of the process. One idea for improvement is to invite a modern day explorer, such as an astronaut, to visit campers.
Our Summer Stars Program is easy to replicate if someone is willing to put in time, effort, and study. Once practitioners read and learn about Gardner and understand his theory, they will find it exciting to start planning ways to use multiple intelligence instruction. Since our program opened, many teachers and administrators have asked to work at or observe the camp's operations and bring back ideas for children in their school settings.
By using Gardner's multiple intelligences and Eleanor Duckworth's notions of "the having of wonderful ideas" (1987), we believe that all potentials for growth and development become the domain for active and enduring learning, both in and out of the school setting. Gardner's words (1993) best describe our strongly held beliefs: At present, the notion of schools devoted to multiple intelligences is still in its infancy, and there are as many plausible recipes as there are educational chefs. I hope that in the next 20 years, a number of efforts will be made to craft an education that takes multiple intelligences seriously; should this be done, we will be in a position to know which of these "thought" and "action experiments" make sense and which prove to be impractical or ill-advised.
We have given much to make the camp successful and have received in return incredible memories of children eager to learn and excited about coming. Peter, a 12-year-old, may have summed up what the camp is about when he stated, "Summer Stars doesn't just last a week or two; it goes on and on and on. I love that camp."
