This year 184 students (3rd - 11th grade) came to campus for the 8th annual Young Scientists Camp program, 17 of whom were faculty/staff children. Campers were on campus for two weeks doing hands-on investigations and inquiry activities. The teaching staff (24 CSULB preservice teachers working alongside 10 Lead Teachers) were on campus for three weeks. They spent a week before camp trying out labs and lessons, developing their curriculum and figuring out guest speakers and field trips.
This year the 3rd through 8th grade topics were Star Scientists, Rockin' Researchers, Habitat Hunters, Natural Disasters and Crime Solvers. Teams visited the LA Natural History Museum, CSULB's Science Learning Center, the Japanese Gardens, local Fire Departments, and the Campus Police. We were visited by water quality controllers, emergency preparedness teams, various CNSM faculty and the Long Beach mobile crime lab. The high school students (entering 11th graders) spent the two weeks studying chemistry. The High School portion of the camp is supported by the Long Beach Unified School District's GEAR UP grant. Students from Cabrillo, Poly and Jordan High Schools came to campus each day to conduct chemistry investigations. Each class took a different approach to teaching the topic such as focusing on water, cooking or art. They were visited by Career Development staff, college professors and undergraduate science student researchers. We look forward to seeing some of these Summer Science Institute participants as freshman here in two years!
Rather than have me tell you about the program I've asked some campers and teachers to reflect on their experiences. Read on to see what they have to say!
Let's hear what campers say about the Program!
For my first year at the Young Scientists Camp, I loved it! The camp was very well organized. It was a good way to meet new people and interact with them. My topic, 6th grade's Natural Disaster's was perfect. I was very interested what we studied. My favorite was learning about faults and earthquakes, because they happen a lot around Southern California. I liked this camp a lot. I can't wait to come back next year for forensic science.
I made new friends and feel prepared for next year. See you next year!
I liked science camp. It was great. I was in Astronomy for third grade and I liked when we did the egg drop/lunar lander. I made lots of friends. I really liked camp. I learned about constellations and galaxies. I liked my teachers. I really want to go to camp next year.
This was my third time going to science camp and I enjoyed it just as much as the first time. My favorite part about science camp was doing all the different experiments about moving air and moving earth. My favorite experiment was building the volcanoes and making the chemical reaction with the vinegar and baking soda. I loved watching it explode. We never get to do any of these science activities in school! I also like visiting the fire station. They taught us about man made and natural disasters. They taught us about how they occur, how to prevent them and how the firefighters put them out. We also learned about the three elements of the fire triangle. The three elements are heat, fuel and oxygen. If you take away one or more elements you can't have a fire. Later in the week we broke into 3 groups and put together a video about disaster awareness. I also liked making seismograph out of shoe boxes. We tested different surfaces to see how big the shake was. Science camp was really fun this year. I'm looking forward to the CSI class next year.
I had a great time at Science Camp. It was a great experience. My favorite activities were the water aquariums and learning about pill bugs. The water aquariums were created in three phases. In phase 1 we put sand and gravel on the bottom of the tank, fill it with water and added some elodea. In phase 2 we put in a strawberry basket and plant container on the bottom and a small piece of algae, buckweed and a water snail. In phase 3 we added blood worms on the sand side and in phase 4 we added the fish. It was interesting to see how everything adapted to the habitat.
Learning about pill bugs was exciting. The nice gardeners for the campus let us set some traps for the pill bugs. Everyone set 3 traps, a hollowed out potato with holes, a drop trap (cup) and another potato with just holes. My highest pill bug count was 37 in the hollowed out potato trap. Our class found out that the hollowed out potato with holes trap caught the most pill bugs.
Those were two of the many activities we did in Science Camp. I can't wait to come again next year for more fun.
Having the opportunity to teach as a teaching associate at the Summer Science Institute was a great way to spend my summer vacation. It was both a learning experience as well as having a good time with the students doing hands-on science. Even though chemistry is not my subject area, teaching it during camp was helpful in gaining and improving my teaching skills. I learned that I like chemistry too, and I hope the students would like chemistry after their experience at camp.
I have to admit that having never had an opportunity to ever be in a Summer Science Camp, both as a student and as a teacher, I hadn't the faintest idea what it was all about. However as it turned out it was one of the best things I did for summer this year. One, because it was so much fun trying out slimes, crystals and make all kinds of pH colors with the students in the chemistry lab. Two, it helped me to prepare for my teaching internship (paid student teaching) in Sep.
It was a great opportunity to work with experienced lead teacher and other TA's. I learnt about planning, organization, class-room management. What's more as I got a chance to work independently with the students, leading them through labs and lectures, and this gave me a much-needed boost of confidence that I could do it! And right now as I'm working with my 180-odd students in my own classroom, I'm using many techniques and strategies I learnt from those 3 weeks of summer camp. A big thanks to the teachers and organizers who make this camp happen every year!
"This isn't Raisin Bran – you don't get two scoops!" These words from teaching assistant Carlos Rios catapulted our classroom of high school juniors into a fit of laughter. He was trying to explain the directions for making a saturated solution of copper(II)sulfate and water. If the students added too much of the blue copper(II)sulfate powder they would instead have a supersaturated solution. However, unbeknownst to them, a supersaturated solution was the next step in our intricate plan...
In August of this summer I had the wonderful opportunity to take part in the Summer Science Institute as a teaching assistant. I was placed in a group with two great teaching assistants, Carlos Rios and Colleen O'Rourke, and an awesome lead teacher from Long Beach Polytechnic High School, Tamara Araya. Our goal, as "The Artists Formally Known Chemists," was to relate chemistry to art. Together we formulated a series of laboratories to help introduce the students to important aspects of chemistry while letting them be creative and have fun.
The Institute was a blast from day one! When seasoned teachers explain that the reason their jobs are so great is because of the students, they are not kidding. The young men and women of The Artists Formally Known as Chemists were not only bright, but also teeming with potential. They applied themselves to the laboratory exercises and asked questions earnestly. Over the course of two weeks we made solutions and crystals, sculpted and copper-plated metal wire, and dehydrated hydrates and clay sculptures (with the help of the Ceramics Department at CSULB!). During the explanation of chemical reactions, Tamara wowed the students by combining concentrated acid and sugar to generate an ascending black tower of carbon right in the beaker! We also experimented with the colorful properties of different elements and compounds. The students performed flame tests to observe the various colors that certain elements and compounds can produce. Then they applied this knowledge to the creation of colored borax glass. Colleen led this lab, and it was by far the most exciting! The students gasped as the borax/metal oxide powders sizzled and snaked and changed color around the metal loops in their wires. Last, but not least, the paints and dyes laboratory had the students exercising their understanding of double-replacement reactions to form precipitates commonly used in paint. The students learned about natural dyes made with vegetables, fruit, spices, and coffee. They added baking soda or vinegar to each natural dye provided, recorded the pH change, and observed that changing the pH of a dye sometimes alters its color or its ability to bind to a substrate. Using their paints and dyes, the students eagerly generated works of art on their canvasses.
On the last day of the Summer Science Institute, the students' parents were invited to come and view the gallery of artwork created by The Artists Formally Known as Chemists. In groups the students explained the detailed chemistry behind the artwork in their portion of the gallery. The parents were definitely impressed! Tamara, Colleen, Carlos, and I were so proud of our artistic chemists, and saying goodbye was difficult.
I learned so much while participating in the Summer Science Institute. I feel like I have grown as a student, an instructor, and a person. The entire Summer Science Institute was a great success, and it could not have been possible without all the dedicated teachers and teaching assistants, as well as our fearless leaders, Kim, Jill, and Dr. Laura!
