This summer, students of all ages will have the chance to Explore Memphis through camps, virtual museum tours, and reading. And there are going to be some pretty good rewards for doing so, too.
Memphis Public Libraries (MPL) is about to kick of its annual Explore Memphis program, aimed at encouraging summer reading and learning for both students and adults. The program was initially conceived to combat what is referred to as the "summer slide."
"When students are out of school for the summer, it's likely that they're not engaging academically or educationally," says Jamie Griffin, children's services coordinator at MPL. "If they're not reading or doing homework, it's possible that they could be left behind, or at least won't advance. We want to combat that, and encourage students to engage with reading in some form through our Explore Memphis program."
Running from June 1st to July 31st, Explore Memphis will have a wealth of options for Memphians. But if straight-up reading a book doesn't appeal, there's no cause for concern. "Learning comes from a lot of places, not necessarily from reading books," continues Griffin. "It could be reading instructions, magazines, manga, or online articles."
Photo courtesy MPL
Jamie Griffin
There are plenty of other activities lined up that fall under a learning umbrella, ranging from numerous camps to virtual museum tours. The programming has kicked it up a notch this year, upgrading to what Griffin calls a "3D approach." As opposed to just reading, there will be week-long camps for kids ages 9-18 covering everything from robotics, to film, to forensics. "I'm very excited about forensics," laughs Griffin, "that's one that I helped cultivate. Kids will use various clues to help solve a mystery. There will be analyzing [synthetic] blood samples, taking fingerprints, things like that."
Griffin trialed the forensics camp at last year's Explore Memphis, and it was a big hit. Much of that hinged on the parents' interest. "We've seen in previous years that if the parents engage, the kids are more likely to engage, too. With our forensics camp, we kept seeing parents leaning over their kids' shoulders, and really getting invested in the mystery."
There's a competitive element to the summer program, as well. For every minute that a participant reads, they'll log that on the website gain one point. Every 60 points will award a small weekly prize, in addition to a single entry into a grand prize drawing. Every additional 60 minutes added on to that will see a name entered into the grand prize pot yet again. While the big prizes haven't been announced yet, last year dangled items such as gift cards, Samsung devices, and a Razor scooter.
The Explore Memphis program has been a big hit in years past. The 2020 iteration saw 33,658 participants, with a total of 806, 879 minutes read. MPL also implemented a winter reading challenge last year to boost literacy engagement during the winter holidays.
"We've seen a lot of support from the community for the work we're doing," says Griffin. "Literacy Mid-South provides us with literacy bags to give to participants, while we share programming with Shelby County Schools. We also partner with local colleges and universities. Many of our participants are teens who are thinking about college, so they can go through full tours on our website, and earn points for that too."
Visit the Explore Memphis website for information about registration, camps, and more.