Summer Science Camp opens the eyes of young
OSU Extension educator Janessa Hill had students look at a number of animal pelts that would exist locally and then ventured out into the woods to learn more about some of the natural habitats, fauna and flora in Holmes County.
While many youth are taking full advantage of the summer break and are busy relaxing, sleeping in, playing games or enjoying time with friends doing whatever they like, a number of local youth went back to school to dig into the sciences, literally.
Summer Science Camp, open to students going into fourth to ninth grade, provided an avenue for the attending youth to learn while at the same time challenging them to develop their science skills, including dipping into the fields of technology, electronics, engineering, math and environment.
David Bayer and Aaron Rennie helped the students design microprocessor-controlled melody-makers on Monday, June 18. The morning sessions also included drone-surveying technology and solving math logic problems.
The afternoon session allowed the students to dissect frogs to see differences and similarities to the human anatomy under the direction of former West Holmes teacher Bonnie Lee Agawa and Danville High School teacher Brian Ackert.
On tap Tuesday were classes on robotics, led by OSU Extension teacher Kathy Blackford, where students created fidget spinners out of Lego pieces.
The students also explored the business aspects of a product when they figured out the marketing and design expenses and how they could best produce and sell their products.
In addition students could make their own body-bath products with OSU Extension teacher Kate Shumaker. More robotics took place in the afternoon, and local Ohio Certified naturalist Pat Dutton delved into biology by talking about bee pollination and its role in the environment while also talking about the way bees thrive and survive in the world.
OSU Extension educator Janessa Hill led off Wednesday’s activities by taking students into nature. They looked at a number of animal pelts that would exist locally and then ventured out into the woods to learn more about some of the natural habitats, fauna and flora in Holmes County.
The closing session on Wednesday, June 20 saw Barry Jacobs from Saber Education Consulting come in and enter the world of the Pleistocene Age, where he talked about fossils believed to be from 15,000 years ago that represented some of the early inhabitants of the area.
These classes and more added up to a learning opportunity for the students who took advantage of the camp.
“We had a great week, and the students were very well-behaved, but they were also extremely interested in everything that was going on throughout the week,” event coordinator Bonnie Trubee said.
While it took the students’ desire to learn and explore for the camp to exist, it also took a large number of volunteers who guided the students through each lesson.
“I really want to thank all of our volunteers who came in to lead classes because they were giving back to our kids and to the community,” Trubee said. “They provided a great opportunity for our children to take advantage of a summer learning experience right here in our own back yard. We tried to create plenty of classes that allowed the kids to have some really hands-on activities that wouldn’t just be educational but would be fun as well.”
Whether it was taking a closer look at nature, pulling apart owl pellets to explore the content of what they were digesting, building robots out of Legos, challenging their brains with logic problems, learning about pollination in bees, fossil exploration, computer programming and more science-related areas, Trubee said the idea is to provide enough of a well-rounded opportunity that something captures the hearts and minds of each student and inspires them to continue to explore the sciences.
“The intent is to get them interested in something and to get them excited about the possibilities that exist in the world of science,” Trubee said.
The three-day event saw a number of students turn out to take advantage of exploring the sciences outside of atypical school room settings.
Lilly Rittenour was there for a number of classes including a fidget spinner class and the computer programming class, and she said she wanted to come to Summer Science Camp because it is her favorite subject.
“It’s definitely more fun than sitting in the classroom, and this camp offers a lot of different areas to explore in terms of things to learn and explore,” Rittenour said.
Natasha Bell said the robotics classes enticed her into coming and said the class that explored nature also was interesting.
“They are all really fun,” Bell said. “In robotics we did a lot of programming of the robots to do what we wanted them to do. That was really fun, and when I heard it was hands-on classes rather than just sitting in the classroom, I was in.”
Memphis Jones joined Rittenour and Bell in the nature exploration class. She said they made alligators and a soccer player’s foot that they programmed to kick a ball out of Lego pieces. The students used a programming application to create a program for each robot.
“I’ve always liked science, so right away I signed up to be a part of this camp,” Jones said.
Like each of the students in attendance for the three days, the opportunities were present for education to take place, and at the end the Summer Science Camp allowed family members to visit and listen to a seminar and see everything the students were able to accomplish and explore throughout the camp.