Natural Science Extravaganza

Playing the Food Chain Game

We've had a blast this week learning about a variety of topics!  On Monday we studied paleontology.  Campers learned about food chains and how prehistoric animals' populations would have changed due to variations in their foods.  We also learned about the importance of feathers and how they helped some dinosaurs.  Lastly, we put our paleontology skills to the test!  Green and Orange groups put together 3D dinosaur puzzles, while Red and Yellow groups decorated their own wooden dinosaurs.

Adding all of the details.

Where are the legs?!

Putting together the body systems.

Tuesday's topic was the human body.  Campers learned about their brains and how different parts of their brains control different aspects of their life by making their own brain hats.  Ask what happens if you damage your Broca's Area or your Wernicke's Area.  Green and Orange groups put together some of the body's systems and learned how they worked together, while Red and Yellow groups learned about the skeletal system and made their own movable skeletons.  Lastly, our campers learned how to take their pulses and how it changes with varying levels of activity.

We've got some brainy campers!

On Wednesday, we focused on Space.  Campers learned that there is more to our solar system than the sun and planets.  Ask your camper what else is in our solar system!  They showed their creative sides by decorating space-themed sun catchers to bring home!  We ended our day with a planetarium show, a camp favorite.

Finished products!

Sorting through the solar system

We went for a hike to the Arb on Thursday to learn about population dynamics.  Campers played "Oh Deer!" to see how the amount of resources affects the population of a herd of deer.  Ask your camper what the three resources were that they needed to find.  Lastly, we picked up a few items from nature to make sun prints on Friday.

Don't get caught by a wolf!

A successful deer with her resource!

Learning about shared water--and cooling off, too!

On Friday, we learned about water.  Campers learned about how communities share water and how that affects the quality of this shared resource.  Green and Orange groups tested out different properties of water, while Green and Yellow groups learned about the different states water can be in.  We learned about density by creating "lava lamps" with oil and water.  These can continue to be used at home, all you need is a bit of Alka-Seltzer!  Just drop a tablet in, and make sure to keep the cap off until the reaction is completely over!

Lava lamps!

Thank you for a great week!  We hope your campers enjoyed it as much as we did!