Science camps shape young minds
Inquisitive kids have many choices
By Mark Sommer
- News Staff Reporter
Updated: 04/24/08 9:24 AM
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- Joy Fu and Jacob Yots participate in the forensics discovery camp at the Buffalo Museum of Science.
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Science camps in Western New York this summer will offer inquisitive young people and future Einsteins opportunities to simulate volcano explosions, dig for fossils, design an imaginary trip to Mars or become forensic sleuths.
Kids will get to don lab coats or get dirty in week-long day camps at the Buffalo Museum of Science; Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens; Charles Burchfield Nature & Art Center, West Seneca; Penn Dixie Paleontological and Outdoor Education Center, Hamburg; and Camp Invention's five locations in Lancaster, Elma, Clarence, West Seneca and Medina.
"The kids always come home very stimulated and excited by what they learned," Gale Burstein of Amherst said of her two sons, Joshua, 7, and Zachary, 9, who attended the Buffalo Museum of Science's summer program … the area's most comprehensive … the past two years, and plan to do so again this year.
"They had a basic interest in science to begin with, but I think their interest grows every time they participate in an activity there."
Trying to free science from the stodgy images of yesteryear, the museum's Discovery Camps dress up their programs with fanciful, playful titles. They promise "Amazing adventures" with such weekly programs as "Reach for the Stars," "Wildlife Crime Scene Investigation" and "Icky, Sticky, Science."
"Fetch Science" borrows from PBS' popular "Fetch," the part-quiz show tailored to kids ages 6 to 10 that's funded by the National Science Foundation.
Betsy Vazquez, public programs coordinator for the museum camps, said they strive to create programs that are fun and educational while taking advantage of the museum's setting in Martin Luther King Jr. Park.
For instance, "Crime investigation" gives youngsters a chance to solve mysteries using techniques of forensic scientists such as fingerprinting and ink analysis.
"It's a mixture of learning," Vazquez said. "They can explore the museum, and play outside on the playground and in the park. They can learn about nature, jump rope or write on the ground with chalk," Vazquez said.
The counselors are typically science teachers, students getting their teacher's degree in science education or early education majors with science minors. Museum professionals are also tapped to share their expertise, Vazquez said.
"You can do a field trip right inside the museum, and learn from professionals in the field," she said.
Mary Beth Murray, who lives near the Elmwood Village and is the mother of Margaux, 6, and Corinne, 8, enrolled her children last summer in Science Spot, a satellite location on Elmwood Avenue.
"The kids never get bored of going there, and actually never want to leave," Murray said. "I know when they go there they're going to have fun, and learn things."
Jayme Cellitioci, Science Spot site manager, said that's by design.
"I really try to get to know who the kids are, and what their curiosities are about science and nature and culture. I try to have that shape how our week plays out," said Cellitioci, who earned a bachelor's degree in marine biology from Long Island University, and a master's in creative studies from Buffalo State.
In one program, campers learn to create things for use with and involving bubbles … a tie-in to the museum's popular Bubblefest. In others, they learn daytime astronomy using telescopes with special filters provided by the Buffalo Astronomical Association, or how to make toys such as Silly Putty, rockets and tops.
"We do driveway science," Cellitioci said. "We block off the end of the driveway, and make rockets, or drop Mentos into Diet Cokes, which makes an explosion of soda."
"They're always exploding something … vinegar and baking soda, volcanoes … all that stuff," said Danielle Connor of Amherst, whose 6-year-old son, Aaron, attended last year. "He likes it so much he's having his birthday there," she said of the year-round facility.
Dinosaurs always hold a strong attraction to kids. The Buffalo Museum of Science offers "Digging Dinosaurs," a program that includes use of the dinosaur collection and its fossils, skeleton reconstructions and a large allosaur head.
At the Penn Dixie site, the 380-million-year-old Devonian-era fossils found in the ground are from a time before the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods when dinosaurs walked the earth.
They are remnants of marine creatures that once lived at the bottom of what was a shallow tropical sea. The creatures died and were buried by mud and later encased in shale.
The 49 acres, which include two acres of wetlands, offer 8- to 12-year-olds opportunities to extract fossils with tools and preserve them in provided kits. Kids also learn how to make casts of either wild turkey or deer tracks, and identify area animals and plants, said Jerry Bastedo, Penn Dixie's executive director.
Camp Invention, which was created by the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation, is held in neighborhood schools and is just what its name implies. Children at some sites will plan and take an imaginary trip to Mars, renovate an art museum's sculpture garden and help rebuild a polluted town.
At other locations, they will design miniature amusement park rides, create safe vehicles and brainstorm about how to get off an alien planet.
In addition, they will take apart old appliances and use the parts to construct inventions of their own. They also learn about various inventors, study the patenting process and keep a journal regarding the creation of their inventions.
"There are not a lot of camps for kids who are not into sports or theater or music," said Kelly Pershyn, a teacher who will direct one of the Camp Inventions in Lancaster. "It gives kids who are really interested in science and problem solving a chance to really strut their stuff, to show their inventive ways of thinking, and to build."
At the Botanical Gardens, located in the South Park Conservatory, two half-day programs designed for kindergarteners to second graders will focus on gardening, including microscope investigations and a buried treasure hunt.
The two camps offered at the Charles Burchfield Nature & Art Center are for families who want science and non-science activities alike.
Camp days will be divided into ecology, art and recreation, said Andrew Jarczyk, program director.
The Buffalo Zoo's day camp will provide an opportunity for young people to learn about the animals and what their habitats would be like if they were not living confined.
