Meet the STEM Educators: Richard Pollard
Pronouns:
He/him
How long have you been working with The Works Museum?
15 years!
What is your background in engineering?
Electrical Engineer
What do you love most about working with kids?
When they surprise themselves and they accomplish something they thought they could not do or had to work hard at to accomplish.
Can you share a fun or memorable moment from past summer camps?
Watching the campers try to cast spells on each other after they make magic wands in Wizard Worlds camp.
What’s one thing you hope campers take away from their time at camp?
That campers can accomplish hard STEM activities like engineers, if they keep trying at it, even if they failed at it the first few times, but learn from their mistakes.
What do you like to do outside of work?
Go for a bike ride and spend time with family, friends and relatives at our family farm.
What’s a fun fact about you?
My son is fifteen years older than my daughter.
Why Cardboard Creations is Your Favorite Camp:
We use one of the simplest materials out there, cardboard, but what the kids create with it is incredible.
I love seeing what happens when we give them just cardboard, tape, and a few cool tools. The ideas they come up with are so creative. They aren’t just making crafts. They’re thinking like engineers.
Each camp has a fun theme like Castles, Fun Houses, or Mansions to help spark ideas. From there, kids take off with their own designs. I’ve seen trap doors, secret slides, towers, and all kinds of wild creations. They are always solving problems, figuring out how to build strong structures, and bringing their ideas to life.
We use safe, kid-friendly tools that make it easy to cut and shape cardboard. It’s fun for them to learn how to use real tools in a safe way.
One of the best moments is when kids start joining their buildings together. They realize they don’t have to build alone. They can connect their creations and make something big as a team. It’s amazing to see them working together and sharing ideas.
At the end of the day, every camper goes home with something they made from scratch. It’s always a proud moment for them, and it’s great to see how excited they are about what they built.
