Applications Open! Enroll for Summer 2027 at 2026 Tuition Pricing Until Sept 30
Invent characters, engineer 3D models, and share an original superhero story in this 3-week program for elementary school students at Fairfield University.
Course Description
Every memorable story begins with a character who wants something. Students explore how traits, motivations, settings, problems, and solutions work together. They invent characters from everyday materials, compare familiar archetypes, and use puppets or models to discover how a character’s design can suggest movement, personality, and story choices.
Creative engineering adds a second challenge: a model must stand, move, or communicate an idea. Students sketch, build, test, and improve three-dimensional characters and story elements. Mind maps, sequencing activities, and oral storytelling help them connect the physical design to a beginning, middle, and end.
For the capstone, each student creates an original superhero story and a 3D model that represents the central character or invention. Checkpoints guide topic choice, character development, plot, construction, and rehearsal. Students present the finished story, demonstrate the model, and explain how design decisions support the character and narrative.
This three-week course is part of Summer Discovery’s Institute for the Gifted program on Fairfield University’s campus. The course is available to commuter students. Beyond class, students connect engaging academic exploration with a welcoming campus community, growing confidence, and curiosity students can carry into what they explore next.
What Will You Do?
• Invent characters using everyday materials
• Compare character traits, motivations, and archetypes
• Map a story with a clear beginning, problem, and resolution
• Sketch and construct a three-dimensional character or invention
• Test and revise the model through the engineering design process
• Present an original superhero story and capstone model
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
• Develop a character with clear traits, motivation, and a role in a story
• Use a plan-test-improve process to build a three-dimensional model
• Tell and present an original story with a connected beginning, middle, and end
Students will leave with story-planning materials, a 3D model, and an original superhero capstone ready to share.
Why Storytelling Skills Matter
Storytelling helps young students organize ideas into a sequence another person can understand. Building a character strengthens descriptive language and perspective because students must decide what the character notices, wants, fears, and does.
Model making turns imagination into a design problem. Students plan, choose materials, test whether a structure works, and revise it. Combining narrative and engineering supports creativity, communication, spatial thinking, persistence, and the confidence to share an original idea with an audience.
Across the course, students practice turning observations into explanations and improving their work through feedback and repeated testing.
Who Should Attend?
This course is for elementary school students who have completed 1st, 2nd, or 3rd grade and enjoy pretend play, drawing, building, superheroes, or telling stories. It welcomes imaginative children who want help turning a big idea into a character, a model, and a complete narrative.
Students should be ready to use age-appropriate craft materials, listen to classmates’ stories, try more than one design, and speak during a supportive final sharing.
A strong participant brings curiosity, patience, and a willingness to revise. The most important preparation is readiness to ask questions and take part.
Why Fairfield University?
Fairfield gives elementary students a fun and welcoming first taste of campus life in a coastal Connecticut town along Long Island Sound. The day includes hands-on classes, outdoor courtyard time, shared meals, and opportunities to make friends in a setting that feels active without feeling overwhelming.
The commuter-only Institute for the Gifted has operated at Fairfield for more than two decades. Students try new challenges and build confidence within a clear, structured program day. For families, Fairfield offers an age-appropriate combination of learning, creativity, friendship, routine, and support. Students get the fun of a summer program and the satisfaction of discovering what they can make, solve, and explore next.
Summer Discovery Certificate of Completion
After successfully finishing this course, you will be awarded a certification of completion for your accomplishment.
*This is a preview, not what you will receive