The Bob Moog Foundation will be sparking the imaginations of Asheville kids this summer, providing a series of four week-long Dr. Bob’s SoundSchool Camps that will be co-hosted by the Asheville Museum of Science (AMOS).
Representing a convergence of science, music, technology, and fun, the “Science of Sound” and “Science of Synthesis” camps offer an expansion of the principles taught through the Foundation’s lauded 10-week educational curriculum, Dr. Bob’s SoundSchool, which inspires over 1,500 Asheville area children every year.
The “Science of Sound” camps are open to campers ages 7-10. Campers will explore the basic physics of sound through a fun, engaging, and experiential journey, discovering the fundamental principles of how sound is made, how it travels, and how it is heard. Campers will delve into the cool concepts of vibrations, waveforms, pitch, amplitude, frequency, and more, all using various musical instruments, including one of the earliest electronic musical instruments, the theremin (which you play without touching it!). Oscilloscopes and other tools will be used to bring these concepts alive. The “Science of Sound” camp will be offered the weeks of August 7th and August 14th from 9am to 1pm in the AMOS STEM Lab.
The “Science of Sound” camp will be taught by Brooks Butler, local musician, exceptional music teacher from Claxton Elementary, and a member of the team that created the original Dr. Bob’s SoundSchool curriculum.
The “Science of Synthesis” camps are open to campers ages 11-13. Campers will explore how synthesizers work, and how they enable us to sculpt sound. In this one-of-a-kind camp, the fundamentals of synthesis will be explored, including day-long explorations of the oscillator, filter, envelope, amplifier, and more. We’ll be using small synthesizer modules created by our friends at littleBits®, and we’ll work our way up to exploring the principles through theremins, synthesizers, cymatics and more. The “Science of Synthesis” camp is being offered the weeks of July 10th and July 17th from 9am to 1pm in the AMOS STEM Lab.
This experiential camp will be taught by August Worley, former engineer at Moog Music, Inc., and instructor in the electrical engineering department at A-B Tech. He is also a long-time volunteer and technical advisor at the Bob Moog Foundation and has assisted with numerous educational events, where he always brings fun and enlightenment to the subject of synthesis.
Asheville Museum of Science welcomes the opportunity to co-host Dr. Bob’s SoundSchool camps, providing Asheville area children with a summer full of scientific exploration. Sign up for both “Science of Sound” and “Science of Synthesis” camps can be found at bit.ly/SoundSchoolCamps2017. For more information contact the Bob Moog Foundation at [email protected].