Newswise — High school students at the world's only hands-on Explosives Camp are learning how to blow stuff up just in time for the Fourth of July.
The camp, which is hosted by Missouri University of Science and Technology, was started by explosives expert Dr. Paul Worsey in 2004, when three students attended. Now in its fifth year, Explosives Camp has become so popular that three one-week sessions are being offered this summer (June 8-14, June 15-21, June 22-28).
In addition to learning how fireworks work, campers feel concussions from underground explosions, blow up watermelons, generate a 150-foot water spout and experience demolition demonstrations.
Worsey, a professor of mining engineering at Missouri S&T, makes sure everybody learns a lot, wears their safety goggles and ear plugs, and has a good time. He says he really enjoys watching the students' reactions when they experience the percussion of a big blast.
The 2008 camp sessions, which have long since filled up, are limited to 20 students each. All of the campers have expressed interest in pursuing a mining engineering degree at Missouri S&T or elsewhere. Missouri S&T is the only university in the nation that offers an explosives engineering minor as part of its mining engineering curriculum.
The students come from as far away as Hawaii to learn the art of blowing stuff up. Many of the activities take place at Missouri S&T's Experimental Mine. Each day, the campers participate in classroom instruction and safety training before initiating an explosion.
"It has to be planned out," says one of last year's campers, Jennifer Babb, of St. Louis. "It's not just boom, boom, boom." Those attending the 2008 sessions are all U.S. citizens who are at least 16 years old. The cost of the camp, including room, board and field trips, is $500.
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