Wild Science Camp: Wednesday

Still have about 60 kids.  Thank goodness for the teens!  We divided the kids into teams and rotations.  Heather from the local conservation district brought a ground water model and did a water activity.  I borrowed an Enviroscape model from the local Girl Scout office and went over the presentation with one of the teens.  Megan is already an avid scientist.  She used the model to review watershed principles.  Miss Ellen led The Incredible Journey as a station.  (I have a bin set up as a kit, with the paper dice, beads in containers, and signs.  We use pipe cleaners for bracelets.). Marie brought her telescope and did a constellation activity with the kids.  Marie and Ellen cut out the constellations, backed them with cards tick and had the kids poke holes with push pins.  Lydia and Gaby set up a cloud in a jar station to go with the Cloud charts they made yesterday. (We had extra copies at their station.) Trae and Eric went with Alana from the DEP outside to the creek to study macroinvertebrates.  Always a hit!  The kids spent the morning rotating through the different stations to ensure everyone got to do everything.  It can be tricky to schedule rotations between stations.  We set up five inside to allow enough time for each group to traipse outside to the creek, do a stream assay, and hike back.  Inside, some stations go longer than others.  As part of start-up, the kids worked on paper bag booklets.  One table had copies of a guide to poison ivy, animal tracks, and tree ID for the kids to cut and glue into the paper bag books.  The kids worked on finishing their guide books in between rotations.  (My chief management technique is to keep them busy!)  It was a lively, but productive morning!  Aside fro Kay-Kay's boo-boo and Chelsea throwing up at the creek and inside, things went pretty smoothly.  We added a verse to the Pizza Hut song: A Jabba the Hut, which was also successful.  In previous years, we did more songs.  But the kids have three favorites they like.  Okay!  It's their camp.  Imgur is acting flaky.  I'll load pictures when I have more time.