News : Science Camp helps students learn through projects, movies

DISNEY NATURE FILMS SCIENCE CAMP AT THE PALACE was a rousing success!

Check out the attached photos from our final session, “OCEANS.”

Special thanks to Kris Howes-VonStein and Jennifer Bliss, two amazing science teachers who gave generously of their summer free time to teach the sessions!

The very affordable summer camp was made possible by a grant from the Vinton Community Foundation, and sponsorships from Pizza Ranch, Farmers Savings Bank & Trust, Frazier Nursery, Tharp Design, and Monkeytown.

Kris Howes-VonStein shared this summary:

I taught the session that went with the movie Earth and the movie African Cats. I always tried to do an introduction activity before the movie that shared a few science facts. After watching the movie, I planned 4-6 activities that related to concepts such as food chains, food webs, predators, and the sun as the main source of energy for our planet. We always had snacks that went with the theme of the movie. Some of our favorite activities were making solar ovens, sidewalk chalk drawings about things we learned and predator games. After the African Cat movie, we had a cheetah relay and a lions leap. The cheetah relay had students wear different things for each part of the relay that represented something special about cheetahs. For example students had to put soccer cleats on their hands to teach that cheetahs don't have retractable claws. The lion's leap compared how far kids can leap to the 20ft leap of a lion. After the Earth movie we did an activity outside to teach how humpback whale use bubble nets to circle prey and catch them. I loved the opportunity to work with the younger students and to keep them interested in science over the summer. I appreciate that Marcy wrote a grant and that area businesses sponsored the movies. I think is says a lot about our community. I think the students would agree that the days went quickly and were non-stop fun learning activities. We worked with many of the same kids for each session and I valued the chance to get to know them since they will be scientist in my classroom in just a few years. Marcy might have total numbers but we had about 55-60 students participate.