NEWS BRIEFS: April 30, 2017

Nolen to address Palmer chamber

Julie Nolen, director of the Alaska Small Business Development Center, will be the featured speaker at the Greater Palmer Chamber of Commerce meeting May 3. Nolen’s presentation is titled “QuickBooks online vs. desktop.” Networking time begins at 11:45 a.m. with the program beginning at noon. The program fee is $5; lunch is $15 or a soup and salad option is $8. The chamber meets at the Palmer Moose Lodge, 1136 S. Cobb St. For more information, call 745-2880.

Camp Invention coming to Machetanz

Camp Invention, a nationally recognized, nonprofit summer enrichment camp program, is coming to Palmer’s Machetanz Elementary School the week of June 5-9.

Camp Invention is a program of the National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) — a nonprofit organization dedicated to recognizing inventors and invention, promoting creativity, and advancing the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship supported by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The camp is unique in part due to its NIHF-inspired curriculum.

Aimed at elementary students K-6, the camp is a weeklong adventure that turns the summer from ordinary to extraordinary through hands-on problem solving, collaboration, and use of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) program. Camp organizers state inventive young minds can exercise their creativity and use their imagination, all while learning and developing new skills they typically don’t get to use in the classroom. A camp goal is to empower children to have big ideas while taking on challenges that inspire them to question, brainstorm, work as a team and build invention prototypes.

This year’s camp curriculum includes hands-on modules such as Duct Tape Billionaire — where campers design duct tape products they can market and sell to mock investors; Have a Blast--where children build high-tech Bubble Blasters and compete as a team in friendly air battles that use physics to boost their advantage; Mission Space Makers--in which teams hatch eggs, sprout living plants and grow crystal trees, all while on a mission to locate and prepare a new planet for human habitation; and Operation Keep Out-where participants learn to reverse engineer old machines and devices, and use their parts to create the ultimate spy gadget alarm box.

All local camp programs will be facilitated and taught by certified Mat-Su educators. Camp Invention serves more than 130,000 students every year and partners with more than 1,400 schools and districts across the nation. For additional information on the upcoming camp, visit campinvention.org.

Annual Plant Materials Center seed sale under way

The state Division of Agriculture’s Plant Materials Center has opened its annual seed sale.

A list of available species and their quantities has been posted to the PMC website at http://plants.alaska.gov.

According to the state, those interested in purchasing seed may place orders by contacting Pete Johnson at the PMC at 745-8105 or peter.johnson@alaska.gov, or by faxing a seed order to 746-1568. Seed will include grass, grain and flower.