Hot summer days often call for jumping into a pool, but last week many young students spent the sweltering hot days on campus, immersing themselves in basketball and broadcasting. With the Jim Les Basketball Camp and the Multicultural Broadcasting Workshop both in session, campus welcomed many enthusiastic students from around the state.

Bradley coaches and staff, area coaches, and Bradley Braves basketball players all helped out at basketball camp, where boys age 8-16 came to learn new skills. The camp offered a fun, competitive environment. The players learned offensive and defensive fundamentals, and the camp stressed the importance of teamwork.  These young men appeared to be having a great time, and I am so glad they were able to take advantage of our wonderful (air-conditioned) Markin Family Student Recreation Center.

A group of creative juniors and seniors from Illinois high schools were able to attend an expenses-paid, hands-on broadcasting workshop, thanks to scholarships provided by Bradley and the Illinois Broadcasters Association. Our own Emmy-award-winning professor Bob Jacobs directed the workshop, which was held in our state-of-the-art Caterpillar Global Communications Center. The students were exposed to the most advanced broadcasting technology and benefited by studying with industry professionals.

I hope to see some of these students back on campus in a few years, either on the basketball team or studying in our Communications Department.

Students create their own “Rube Goldberg Machine” during World of Wonder.

Bradley’s youngest scholars were on campus last week, studying subjects such as cryptology, Renaissance art, folk tales and fairy tales, and the life and work of Rube Goldberg. I look forward every summer to World of Wonder, which pairs talented teachers from area schools with Bradley student aides to create a challenging environment for gifted and talented students in grades 1 through 8. This year over 200 students attended, taking one to three classes each day.

Whether the focus is math, art, or science, these lively classes create hands-on experiences for the students, all of whom come because of their love of learning.

In “Rube and You,” groups of students created their own Rube Goldberg machine — a complicated invention contrived to carry out a simple task, such as breaking an egg or turning on an appliance. The students used tubes, balls, dominoes, and even a toy train to create a complex series of events that ended with the desired task. The room was filled with anticipation and excitement on the final day, when the students’ families came to watch the inventions in action.

Since 1983, children have had the chance to spend a week of their summer vacation studying fun subjects such as this on campus. World of Wonder is sponsored by the Bradley University Institute for Gifted and Talented Youth.

A second week of WOW will take place August 3-7, with topics such as Histories Mysteries, Herpetology, Robots, Improv Acting, and more. For more information, visit the World of Wonder online.

In addition to the WOW students, over 60 high schoolers were on campus June 9-12 for Rocket Engineering Camp. During the camp, students design and build a rocket, predict its course, and, on the final day, test-fire it through a football goal post. The camp is designed for young women and men interested in engineering, technology, and the sciences. See a slide show of photos from camp activities, including the rocket launch. Go>

In “Kitchen Chemistry” third graders in the World of Wonder program learn how everyday kitchen items can be used to do extraordinary things.

What a beautiful day here on campus! This afternoon we had sunshine with a cool breeze.

And, thanks to the help of our dedicated grounds crew, everything’s coming up roses. . . and petunias, cleomes, and geraniums. I know everyone has been enjoying the great variety of colorful flowers planted around campus the last couple of years.

Today, grounds maintenance employee Eric Christy was out tending the flower beds near Bradley Hall.