Local students spend summer at explosives camp

By Kay Quinn

KSDK -- It's a summer camp like you've never seen before. It's an explosives camp, where high school juniors and seniors gain hands-on experience working with explosives.

Dr. Paul Worsey founded the camp at the Missouri University of Science & Technology in Rolla.

The camp serves not only to recruit future students, but also future workers for the explosives industry.

"There are a lot of people getting towards retirement age. So there are a lot of opportunities coming up in the next ten years for people going into the explosives industry," Worsey said. "And it's very, very important that we put out people with the correct knowledge to keep the industry going."

The average starting salary for 2009 graduates of the Missouri S&T program was just over $75,000.

Campers are required to submit a resume, an essay on why they're interested in explosives, and a letter of recommendation from a high school teacher or counselor.

The camp costs $1,200 dollars for the week and students get to stay in on-campus housing. The situations are real, as are the explosives.

Most parents are concerned, but safety is a top priority at the camp. The week begins with a demonstration involving a chicken. Worsey said putting explosives in the chicken is very visual, but it also forces the students to stop and think.

"They do enjoy it, but it does put in their heads and what's involved and the problems you can have if one accidentally went off while you're handling them," said Worsey. "There are lots of things you can do with explosives, and lots of things you really shouldn't do with explosives."

As the week goes on, the explosions become larger.

"Ever since I was a kid, I've liked fireworks and stuff like that. As I got older, I found out there were more career options and stuff like that that you could do with actual explosives that were safe," said camp participant Graham Klick, a senior at Rockwood Summit.

"Dr. Worsey's a lot of fun to have as a teacher, he's really funny. It's a lot of hands-on kind of stuff, and I like that. You actually get to touch all the explosives and see how they're prepared, rather than just watching someone else do it and not getting to do anything."

While some of the camp is certainly fun, Dr. Worsey has given a lot of serious thought to his teaching style.

"The way I believe the teacher should be is you shouldn't be teaching it if you can't do it. What we do is we're very hands-on here, more hands-on than anywhere else," said Worsey.

Many of these students have had prior experience with explosives. In the correct hands, simple fireworks become much more than a Fourth of July display. And Worsey said the caliber of student the camp attracts is highly experienced.

"It's amazing to see what some of the students have actually done. A lot of them make potato cannons, one of them made a jet engine and a jet-powered go-kart. They're into all sorts of different things, and they've got very, very inquisitive minds," Worsey said.

St. Charles West senior Taylor Engel isn't exactly an explosives novice.

"I've had some failures. I burnt part of my hand right here, I had second degree burns on there. And I did a few thousand dollars worth of damage to our house. Mom and dad weren't too happy, but I thought it was fun...They say, 'Learn how to do it right here,'" Engel said.

Concrete columns destroyed, trees splintered, explosives made from wine bottles and soda cans: These are things you'll only see at this one-of-a-kind camp that's offering students something they can't get anywhere else.

"What I'm doing is I'm lighting that spark, fueling that spark that's probably there already," Worsey said. "So they know that it's a career path that's available for them, the area of their interest. One of the problems with this camp is if they ever go on another camp after this, it's all downhill from here."