We had another great week of camp! Campers had a blast learning about the outdoors. Here is a summary of each day with some pictures as well.
Monday
On Monday we learned about one of the most important things one needs in order to survive in the outdoors… shelters.
We learned and talked about all kinds of shelters, from tee-pees to quinzhees to leaf huts. We also learned that depending on the environment one is in, certain shelters are better and more practical than others.
Another activity we did was build a mini shelter to protect against the sun. Campers were provided materials to help accomplish this task. To test out their shelters campers also made little creatures out of regular beads and pipe cleaners. In addition to the normal beads, campers added special UV-Sensitive beads that react when exposed to sunlight.
Campers also had another chance at building a different shelter, but this time their task was to protect a paper family from the rain (we used a spray bottle to simulate this). The materials they received for this task were similar to the ones they received for the sun shelter, but to make things a little more challenging, campers were limited to the materials they were allowed to use via a budget of $10.00 and a spending sheet.
Tuesday
On Tuesday we learned all about water, one of the most essential things a human needs to survive of course.
We played a game called the watershed adventure game. In this game campers pretended to be a drop of water. They started at the very beginning which was a cloud and had to make it all the way to the ocean. The way they would advance is by rolling a die and depending on what they rolled they would move closer to the ocean, if they were lucky that is.
On the way to they ocean they could end up evaporating and going back to the clouds or they could end up getting polluted on the way which also moved them backwards to the water purification plant. Ultimately we learned that the journey for a water drop is arduous.
Another activity we did was a skit called “Who dirtied the water.” In this activity we all gathered around a table with a bowl of clean water. We pretended the bowl was a piece of land that was untouched by humans. The land was teeming with wildlife, that would affect the lake in small ways, but then that changed. Humans started to move in and affect the environment in a different way. To show this change students were assigned roles farmers, boaters, laundromats, factories, etc. Depending on their role they would add a certain element of pollution to the water some being more harmful than others. The goal of this activity was to show that humans do have an impact on the environment and it doesn’t always have to be negative if we are responsible citizens. We learned that we have to protect our resources such as our lakes because if we contaminate them we not only hurt the wildlife that inhabit those places but we can also hurt ourselves.
We built water filters. While building our filters we went through some of the steps that they use to purify water in real life. The steps were coagulation and sedimentation, filtration and disinfection. Once our filters were built we tested them by filtering some dirty water (which was just water mixed with soil).
Campers also had a chance to work with our stream table. The stream table is used to simulate how river systems work and to help show certain processes in action such as erosion.
Wednesday
On Wednesday we went to the Arb!!! The weather was perfect and overall it was a great trip.
Thursday
On Thursday we talked about all the things we saw at the Arb and went into greater detail about them. We also made sun prints out of the materials that we collected from the Arb.
Campers also got to make foot prints out of plaster. As we discussed foot prints are good evidence that can tell us animals have been through an area and also which animals exactly. Besides foot prints we also discussed other types of evidence that animals can leave behind, such as scat, feathers, etc.
Friday
On Friday we learned about outdoor skills.
We learned how compasses work and made our very own to take home.
Then we practiced using the compasses we made. Campers also learned how to tie knots. After learning a couple of basic scout knots we played some knot tying games!
We then used those skills to go on a scavenger hunt throughout the museum! At the end of the scavenger hunt campers got a special treasure to take home.
