By Gregory A. Phillips
Staff Writer
MIDDLEBURG - For the past week, Hanna Coulter has been excited about waking up early, packing into the family car and heading to a girl scout camp in Middleburg.
She's one of about 110 area students from grades one through sixth taking part in Summer Science Camp July 14-25, sponsored by the Clay County School District as part of an initiative to more place emphasis on Science, Reading, Technology and Math - often referred to as STEM.
'A bunch of my friends were going to be coming here, but it turned out only one did. But I do enjoy the science. I've always enjoyed it in school, but here we get to do more experiments and stuff,' Coulter said.
Along with archery or canoeing along Black Creek at the North Fork Leadership Center, students get to use their minds as well. Science experiments in thermo dynamics or filtration are part of the daily schedule Coulter enjoys.
The kids will perform an experiment and then discuss the results as a group and try to figure out why the results turned out the way they did. This is what makes science camp special, they have more time to discuss ideas and theories or to even do more than just one experiment.
'We were doing an experiment in filtration and Hanna asked what would happen if we did the experiment a second time,' said Debra Carter, a fifth and sixth grade camp leader who also teaches at Paterson Elementary on Fleming Island. 'I said, let's see and we did the experiment a second time to see if the results would vary.'
When the results varied, the kids tried to figure out why. Through group discussion and combining ideas from virtually everyone in the group, they developed a theory. If the soil is not measured out exactly the same, it will impact the amount of solution which filtrates through it. More soil, less solution at the end as the soil absorbs more of it. Less soil means more solution.
Camp counselors use what appear to be everyday summer camp activities, such as canoeing to show real world examples of scientific principles. Everything around them can spark a discussion about why nature is the way it is, including a tree being hit by lightning the evening of July 14 during a thunderstorm in Middleburg.
'Yeah, one of the trees got hit by lightning yesterday and it opened a discussion about why the top of the tree was blown off,' said Colleen Marini.
The thrust of the camp is covering environmental and ecological sciences. Since they have a natural habitat all around them, the camp and its natural surroundings is the science lab.
Using a simple experiment, such as magnifying the sun's light through a clear balloon onto a black balloon inside, the kids learn about heat transfer. The black balloon inside explodes first prior to the clear balloon exploding.
All the kids, regardless of age, can perform the experiment and then try to figure out why it happened. Some of the kids right away start talking about how the black balloon will absorb more heat than the clear balloon, but then need a little push to why that matters.
'What's inside the black balloon?' instructor Lorena Doniney asked her first and second graders. One voice rose above the group saying, 'Molecules and atoms.'
What happens when you introduce energy to those parts of matter? They expand and 'That's why the balloon explodes!' was the roaring response from most of the class in an en masse 'Eureka' moment.
Baker said that the attendance for this year's camp was good, but not like last year when they had three sessions. The second session of this year's Science Camp runs from July 21-25 with the days going from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, contact Tammy Smith at (904) 529-4893.
STAFF PHOTO BY GREGORY A. PHILLIPS
Science camp students use balloons to learn about heat transfer during a session on July 15 at the North Fork Leadership Center.
Last modified on Thursday, July 17, 2014 - 06:00
Entities 0 Name: MIDDLEBURG Count: 3 1 Name: Coulter Count: 2 2 Name: North Fork Leadership Center Count: 2 3 Name: Debra Carter Count: 1 4 Name: Black Creek Count: 1 5 Name: Clay County School District Count: 1 6 Name: Colleen Marini Count: 1 7 Name: Hanna Count: 1 8 Name: Baker Count: 1 9 Name: Paterson Elementary Count: 1 10 Name: Gregory A. Phillips Count: 1 11 Name: Tammy Smith Count: 1 12 Name: Hanna Coulter Count: 1 13 Name: GREGORY A. PHILLIPS Science Count: 1 14 Name: Fleming Island Count: 1 15 Name: Lorena Doniney Count: 1 Related Keywords 0 Name: balloons Score: 54 1 Name: camp Score: 45 2 Name: science Score: 34 3 Name: experiment Score: 32 4 Name: middleburg Score: 30 5 Name: coulter Score: 26 6 Name: filtrates Score: 25 7 Name: soil Score: 22 8 Name: kids Score: 19 9 Name: black Score: 19 Authors Media Images 0
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