National Electronics Museum 3

Moving into the third month of my internship at the National Electronics Museum, I had initially thought things would be settling into a familiar routine. However, that was not the case. As July ended the last big education event for the summer was the second session of Pioneer Camp on August 15^th and 16^th. Having already completed the first session of the camp, I thought I knew what to expect going into the second session. The first issue arose when I needed to order materials for the 29 campers that were currently signed up (compared to 19 the first session) but was worried about last minute sign ups that would increase the camper count. The week leading up to the first session we had an extra 8 campers register, which was fine because I had over ordered supplies so we had some for the second session. But, there was no third session so I did not want to waste the museums limited funds on excess supplies that we would never use for anything else. With that in mind I went to the assistant director, Alice, and received permission form her to put an end date on registration for the second session so that we had time to order excess supplies as needed.

That settled my supplies issue but left me with, perhaps the more pressing concern. Pioneer Camp session one had 19 campers and I had three and a half (one volunteer could only do one day of the two day camp) assistants to help me run the camp. Pioneer Camp session two had 27 campers enrolled and I had one and a half assistants to run the camp. One volunteer could be there both mornings but had to leave at lunch time. Then the day of the camp, Alice told me the front desk assistant could help me, but my primary education assistant got sick and could not help on the first day and had to leave at lunch on the second day. This led to Alice stepping in to help me run the camp, so I now had two and a half assistants, but none of them were there the first time. They were all fantastic, and thankfully the satellite demonstration and HAM radio station at our museum both came through again to give us a bit of a break during the second day.

The second session of the camp was nearly the direct opposite of the first session in behavior. The first session was well behaved on day one, but was much more rambunctious on day two. The second session was horribly behaved on the first day, partly due to the lack of familiarity of the staff with the projects, and were much better behaved on the second day, thankfully. The difference in staff to camper ratio aside the second session went very well, a part from one or two unexpected issues. The first issue was that one parent was extremely late to pick up their children, which was something the museum had never had an issue with during prior years. In prior years the camp was over at 1:00pm so if a parent was late they child could just visit the museum with a staff member. This year the camp did not end until 5:00pm, and the museum closed at 4:00pm. So the director and I had to stay until the children was picked up by their parents. The parent finally arrived around 6:00pm, which was an hour late. After this, the museum has decided that in the future they will charge a late pick up fee much like a daycare would if a camper is not picked up in a timely fashion. The second issue was that one of the tables had trouble paying attention because they were constantly trying to trade Pokemon cards, and I largely mention this because I would never, ever have predicted I would have to confiscate Pokemon cards over the summer here.

Both sessions of Pioneer Camp were fairly successful this summer, and I have defiantly learned a lot about teaching kids, and running an educational camp during the summer. Due to feedback from prior years I decided to make the camp two full days from 9:00am to 5:00pm, and ultimately I believe that was a mistake. That is two days that are longer than their regular school day, and by 2:00pm the kids were getting restless and tired of being in camp all day. As a museum staff we have not had a meeting about Pioneer Camp and how to make it better but I thought this would be a good place to try and articulate my thoughts on the matter. This summer we had 4-8 groups nearly every week of June and July. These were other summer camps that would come to the museum for tours, demos, and sometimes workshops as well. We charge $2 for the guided tour, $5 for demos and tours, and most of our workshops are $10 per participant. That means a group that comes here for two and a half hours at the cost of $15 per student if they want everything. Most of our workshops we buy the supplies in bulk so the cost is maybe $5-$6 per participant plus my hourly wages, and maybe the wages to one of my assistants. So a group of twenty campers would cost $300 for tours, demos, and workshops but the cost to us would only be around $150 for staff and materials. So, in that two and a half hours the museum has made about $150, and any extra supplied go towards the next workshop. That is also a $50 an hour profit for the museum. If a group just wants tours and demos the only cost is staff time and so it is nearly pure profit. Pioneer Camp supplies cost nearly $1,000, and we charged $80 per camper, $72 if you had more than one camper register to make it easier for families. So with 46 total campers, 38 paid $80 and 8 paid $72 that means we were paid a total of $3,616. Take away $1,000 for supplies and that is $2,616. Take away another $1,120 just to pay for staffing the two sessions of camp and that leaves $1496 as the profits for the museum. $1496 divided by the 36 hours that the camp lasted for is $41.56 per hour profit for the museum. This profit also does not count all of the hours I spent prepping for the camp, ordering supplies, talking with parents etc. In light of that and the drastic increase of the number of groups visiting the museum from other summer camps.

 I believe we need to seriously consider overhauling Pioneer Camp due to the lower profit margin and its lower impact in that it has drastically less participants. The participants for Pioneer Camp have all already heard of the museum or visited, so it also is not really introducing the museum to new attendees that will tell people about the museum. Not that pleasing a base of people who already know about the museum is a bad thing, I just think it is something we need to keep in mind moving forward. I do believe we should not do full days next summer because while easier for the parents it is very tough for the kids and at that point they aren’t really learning anything anymore. I wonder if one option is to do multiple shorter “camps” that target age groups other than 8-10. Maybe smaller more intimate sessions where we can teach older kids how to solder, and focus specifically on one principle of electricity or magnetism each day of the camp. That activity/lesson lasts maybe 3 hours and the attendees pay just for whichever lesson interests them? I honestly am not sure what the best thing to try next summer is, but I am looking forward to discussing it with the staff here at NEM moving forward. I am also immensely grateful for this experience directing staff and volunteers in leading an educational summer camp for young children. It has helped me to develop better leadership, logistical, teaching, and people skills. All of which will help me moving forward in just about any job position.