The theme this summer being Fizz, Boom, Read has made program planning a breeze. It was so easy to come up with programming that revolved around STEM that was fun and innovative!

One of the first programs we had this summer was learning to make light trail photos, you know when the lights are out and you see those photos that spell out names and shapes? We blacked out the windows in our community room, placed our camera on a tripod and each kid got a small flashlight to use to make their photos.

I taught the kids a little bit about how the camera works and what the shutter speed does. We set the shutter speed to 10 turned out the light and had a child go in front of the camera and move the flashlight around. After the ten seconds, we turned the light back on and showed off the picture. They were amazed on how the camera actually took a picture of writing! I explained how the camera for that ten seconds was capturing everything happening with the light, this is how photographers get pictures of fireworks etc. Each kid brought in a digital camera if they had one at home and some had settings to change the shutter speed and we changed the shutter speed on their cameras so they could try it at home.

At first kids were going a little too fast or too slow, or writing their names backwards. After about 5 or 6 tries, the kids really got it and were amazed. After every photo that was taken (thanks to our teen volunteer who was in charge of the lights) the 15 kids at the program rushed over to the camera to see how it turned out! The creativity then started to flourish as one group of girls ended up tracing each other with the flashlight, while a young 1st grader wrote her name beautifully.

It is such a simple trick to create light trail photos and not only did the kids create something they never have before but they now have a better understanding on the mechanics behind a camera. I hope to do this program again in the future!