Summer Science Camps at the Field Station
Posted on Tuesday, July 29, 2008
"Camps R Us" might have been the slogan for this summer's warm weather activities at the Field Station. In one group or another over 80 children of the community spent one or more days observing nature, visiting the labyrinth, hiking trails, getting wet or learning how composting works. This is as it should be! Community service is part of the Mission Statement for Westminster's Field Station.
Children from the New Wilmington United Methodist Church's Day Camp completed a full week of "Rainforest Adventure" that took an imaginary and visual trip to Ecuador's rainforest plus a real trip to the College Woods, the Frey Nature Trail and the Little Neshannock Creek. In rainforests and in our wooded lands there are layers or stories, usually four of them -- the emergent trees, the canopy, the understory and the ground cover. They learned about limiting factors like light, nutrients and water that have to be met for one forest type or another to develop. A true tropical rainforest requires at least 10 feet of rain each year; New Wilmington posts an average of 3 ½ feet. Rainforest temperatures are generally constant; our forests experience temperature changes from freezing to hot. We'll not have a tropical rainforest in the College Woods! Nevertheless, there are similarities that include big trees, ferns . . . and vines that provided a chance to play "Tarzan." Both kinds of forests have herbivores and carnivores. The children learned, through pictures and objects, that the indigenous people of the rainforest are special and that the world would not be same without rainforests. Every breath of air here in New Wilmington has some oxygen that came from tropical rainforests of the world! That's amazing!
That wasn't all that happened at the Day Camp between 9:30 and 3:00 each day. On a hot day nothing made more sense than "creek walking" in the Little Neshannock. And this didn't keep the more adventurous from jumping and swimming. Microscopes were used another day to examine flowers, leaves and water from the creek. Live-trapped shrews, chipmunks and field mice provided some excitement when the released animals collided with children's feet and then skittered back into their home habitats, just as different kinds of animals in the rainforest might have done. T-shirts were dyed with rainforest pigments! There were Bible lessons and meditation times in the Nature Center and at the Sandy Edmiston Labyrinth. These sessions provided a unique and natural focus for the week. God wants us to understand the world of nature! There were crafts and games. And all of this ended with a bonfire and its usual trimmings -- hotdogs and s'mores -- on the last Friday, July 18. Reverend Patricia Nelson was director of the Day Camp. Her helpers for crafts included Erin Morgan, Dawn Painter and Renee Hartwell. I helped set the rainforest stage with photos, artifacts and experiences of recent travels in Ecuador, Puerto Rico and Africa.
One week before Methodist Day Camp, Wilmington Area Elementary Schools sponsored a 4-day Ecology Camp at the Field Station for children grades one through four. The children in small groups were led by adult facilitators who kept them busy every morning from 8:30 until noon with activities that encouraged serious investigation of topics of ecology. These were sometimes complicated -- like pH, water chemistry, nutrients, fish and tree identification and composting. Kids played environmental games to find out how the world works. They did "Gyotaku," a form of Japanese fish printing with rubber molds of fish, a common topic of the week. Their fish prints decorated T-shirts that proudly proclaimed "Wilmington Area Ecology Camp 2008." This might mean that another Ecology Camp in 2009 is going to happen! Elementary School Principal George Endrezzi, Emily Stock and John Robertson provided leadership for this camp with assistance from Connie White, Joyce Moore, Jay Sabik and Melissa Hart.
Earlier in the summer a group of children from the Vacation Bible School at the New Wilmington Presbyterian Church hiked out to walk the Labyrinth and consider nature's beauty. That was a hot sunny day and the nearby shade was a welcome relief for a time of meditation and discussion. And there was a short, mid-June visit to the Field Station by children in the College's Pre-school Science Camp who studied recycling and composting.
When children with boundless curiosity and energy are encouraged to spend time in nature study, they learn lessons that will carry them through life. The Field Station is a great place to learn these lessons by all who come here -- college students, community adults AND children.
Clarence Harms, Director
Field Station
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