Earth Explorers Camp Day 1
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EmailIn our third week of amazing summer camps, see what we did on the first day of Earth Explorers!
Earth Explorers Camp: Day 1
Garden Kitchen
The day always starts better when you have food in your belly! We got to cut up some zucchini and squash into thin slices, then coated with some spices, then roasted in the oven! Each batch was prepped for the next group of campers, and we even had extra so our Educational Leaders were also able to have some! In the hot afternoon, we made a cooling Cucumber Refresher with cucumbers and mint. It was a nice way to cool down from the hot sun.
Hayride
Time to go on a wagon ride! As our campers learned today, it's not actually hay that they were sitting on, but straw! Straw is for bedding, hay is for eating, but the tradition of calling it a Hayride will not go away anytime soon! We go to see a group of deer, as well as a small group of turkeys who were crossing the fields. There were lots of bird houses as well, we got to count quite a few!
Goat Milking and Egg collecting
Taking care of all the animals on the farm also involves learning about milking goats and how we use the milk to make different products. Other groups got to say hello to some of the chickens on the farm, and had the chance to collect some eggs, as well as learn about the different kinds of eggs that different hens make. Sometimes there are campers who don't want to go into the coup, but still participated in learning and interacting with the hens, which makes them our bravest campers ever!
Casting Line Game
We went fishing today...on land? This game was mainly to learn how to cast a fishing line so the campers could be comfortable when we do our fishing segment. Lines were cast so far, we thought they would go straight into the pond!
Pond Study
Finding tadpoles, snails, and worms, oh my! Today was a day to learn more about the creatures to live in the water, so naturally that involved doing pond studies. The campers go to the pond and capture some of the tiny things that live there in small nets. they filled trays with water, and then put their catch inside, using magnifying lenses to see some of the smaller bugs and worms. One group even caught a giant tadpole!
Fishy Story
This activity was to explain how pollution affects the water that our fishy friends live in, and why it is so important to take care of the water that we have so that the water life can live longer. The examples were made by filling a fish tank with water, then pouring all sorts of liquids and solids into the tank, to visualize how it would affect the water. We put in so many things that by the end the water turned cloudy and opaque. By doing this exercise we can show the campers the importance of not polluting water.
Tie Dye
As always on the first day, we gave each camper a MSU Tollgate Farm T-shirt that they could bunch up with rubber bands, and then with each Steward and S.I.T's help, they were able to dye their shirt with the colors they chose. Each camper gets to take home their shirt to keep and wash to wear on our Tie-Dye Friday!
View the Earth Explorers photo album here!
