THE UPSTREAM – DOWNSTREAM CONNECTION
THE UPSTREAM – DOWNSTREAM CONNECTION
Boys and Girls Club Summer Day Camp
at
A Time for Science Nature and Science Learning Center
Two groups of 14 campers from the Ayden Boys and Girls Club each spent a week in June experiencing nature, doing science and having fun. Thanks to funding provided by Casey Sokolovic through her Love A Sea Turtle foundation, A Time for Science Nature and Science Learning Center was able to develop and present a series of activities that allowed the participants to learn a whole lot about water: where and how it occurs, types of water bodies, the life forms it supports, what occurs within it and what it occurs within and how important it is to all of life. Enjoy the images below which follow our budding scientists and naturalists through their week of learning and fun.
Arrival at the center
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Decoration of their Hat/Name tags
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Waters in our own back yard
Camp began with tour of the Nature Conservancy to see different water bodies here in Eastern NC and the kinds of plants and animals they support water
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Plants living in and around the water
A collection of tree leaves, reeds and plants from around the creeks wetlands and ponds were collected and identified and leaf-print shirts were prepared to aid in remembering.
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How wet is our planet
Through pictures from NASA, data from the web and an exercise in measuring volumes, the occurrence of water in oceans, ice caps, glaciers, rivers, lakes, the atmosphere and ground water revealed just how little was available for all of our human activities that depend on water.
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How Lucky We Are
With data generated from personal experiences combined with data from the internet, the quantity of water used by different people was listed and the difficulty that many people on earth experience in acquiring their daily water consumption was not only explained but experienced through the pumping and carrying of water. The “Forty Gallon Challenge” elicited from our campers a combined pledge to conserve up to nearly 8,000 gallons of water every day.
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What’s in the water?
Several exercises allowed the campers to examine and determine various fresh water fish and invertebrates and various chemical constituents in the different water bodies.
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Water we eating
Physically determining the water content of several of our common foods (some from the demonstration garden at the Center), “executing” several cooking recipes in the Center’s kitchen and a visit to the catfish packing plant down the road, generated an appreciation for the amount of water that occurs in all living things. It also allowed our scientists to learn about balances and weighing and how to use computer spread sheets for calculations.
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Lessons in Kayaking
With kayaks provided by the Pamlico Tar River Foundation and by Ayden Arts and Recreation, throughout the week our campers received lessons in kayaking in the safety of Eli’s Pond.
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Putting Training into Practice
Beginning at the horseshoe bend behind the Conservancy, our campers kayaked down Little Contentnea Creek to its junction with Contentnea Creek and enjoyed exploring the sand bars for their living treasures. After a picnic at the boardwalk on the wetlands they paddled back up to the bend.
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Beach Ecology Snorkeling and the Turtle Rescue Center
On the last day our intrepid campers traveled to Topsail Beach where Rum Runners taught them to snorkel and they experienced the difference between fresh water ecology and sea water ecology. They ended their week with a visit to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Hospital.
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Just a few (160) of the pictures we took.
