Rising fourth through sixth graders dived into the depths of the ocean June 22–26 at Kids’ University Creatures of the Deep, hosted by Georgia College & State University’s Academic Outreach.
Partnering with the department of Continuing and Professional Education, Academic Outreach hosted one week of camp to teach campers about the science of the ocean and the animals that live within it. Director of Academic Outreach Ruth Eilers stated that this year’s theme was selected by campers who attended last year’s Creature Camp: All Creatures Newborn and Nesting.
“At the end of each camp, we have the campers fill out a survey and they suggest what they would like to learn more about. It’s an openended question and we take those answers to decide the theme for the following year,” said Eilers.
Planning for camp began in May and the planning committee put lots of research into activities, speakers, field trips, and things for the campers to do. Camp was full and Eilers stated that there was a waiting list before the start of camp due to the high amount of interest.
“Kids love creature camp each year and, rarely, camp isn’t close to full or full,” said Eilers. “This year, when planning, we took some of Dr. Kristin White’s (an associate professor with a focus on coastal sciences) syllabi for her college classes to decide on standards topics to teach at camp. It led to many fun activities for campers to participate in.”
During the week, White visited camp and brought beach sand with her from all over the world that campers were able to observe under a microscope. In addition, she taught about different animals in the ocean and the type of research that she does, which led the students on Thursday of that week to visit the Georgia Aquarium to see ocean life up close.
“In addition to their field trip, we had a little bit of sea life at camp. I brought in sea monkeys that the students watched daily for hatching and students were also able to interact with our camp hermit crab mascot, Sir Friedrich Paul,” said Eilers. “It was very important to us for campers to both see and interact with the animals while also learning about them. It adds a deeper understanding to the activities and lessons of the week.”
Eilers stated that campers learned about a variety of topics like the desalination of salt water, the density of salt water, buoyancy and pressure, the ecosystem of the ocean and how it affects marine life, how sand varies based on where it is from, and much more.
“I think one of their favorite activities was the Cartesian diver, which teaches about buoyancy. The diver floats right at the top of the water and when you close the bottle and squeeze it, he dives down due to the change of pressure,” explained Eilers. “We took this activity one step further by going to the pool and discussing how when you dive down to the bottom of the pool it has more pressure. Then we explained how animals can live at different depths of the ocean.”
Three high school camp counselors assisted with each of these activities and worked behind the scenes to set them up. According to Eilers, one of the counselors was a volunteer and the other two were members of High Achievers, an afterschool youth development program, that partnered with Academic Outreach for summer internships.
“It’s good to see young people getting involved and learning alongside the staff to be able to assist and teach the campers,” said Eilers. “We always enjoy being able to incorporate these camp counselors into our summer camps.”
Overall Eilers recounted the week as a success and a memorable experience. Based on evaluations, next year’s creature camp will focus on creatures in the desert, so families can look out next summer for camp sign-ups.