Welcome back to Sarah's Summer Science Scrapbook! This is the second update for Summer 2009.
This past week, we explored "Backyard Beasts and City Critters" with one of our nature oriented weeks. Projects this week taught us about our natural world while we explored electricity and basic circuits, air pressure, kinetic and potential energy, and simple machines.
One of our projects was a Hummingbird Feeder. During this lesson, we learned about hummingbirds and their unique migratory and flight abilities. We also learned about the careful balance of air and water pressure used to keep the hummingbird's food from falling out of the feeder.
Another fantastic project was our Critter in a Can. In this project, we made rubber band powered raccoons that would pop up (or completely fly out) of our little trash cans when the lid was removed. During this lesson, we learned about the amazing intelligence and memory of raccoons as well as the conversion of potential energy to kinetic energy.
We also built a Rolling Grasshopper toy where we learned about wheel and axles and friction.
Some of our other projects included an LED Matching game where we had to identify which animals were backyard animals and which were not, a Butterfly Garden where we planted Milkweed seed to attract Monarch butterflies, and a City Critter Tracking Kit. This week's advanced project (for the older groups) was a Fly Fetching Frog. This rube goldberg machine had a series of simple machines and counterweights that would stick out the frog's magnetic tongue to catch the magnetic flies.
We also got to spend some quality time in the woods where we went on hikes, played games, built forts, and just relaxed.
And we also enjoyed healthy snacks prepared by our CITs and Junior Counselors. For more information about our CIT leadership program, please see here.
This past week at the Oakland site, we established a new tradition of honoring some of our great counselors with a Maillot Jaune (French for Yellow Jersey) modeled off of the tradition from the Tour de France. While we await for our official yellow super staff t-shirts, we did some creative improvising to bleach tie-dye some regular staff shirts into super staff shirts. The recipients from this past week are Eva and Ted! This coming week, they will pass on the shirts to two new counselors.
Can't get enough of Sarah's Science? Our exciting upcoming themes include our fantastic week of electricity "All Charged Up!" (July 20 – 24 session in San Ramon, Oakland, and Berkeley) and "Amazing Adaptations" (July 27-31 session in San Ramon, Oakland, and Berkeley).
In"All Charged Up!" we will
- Make a mini-flashlight
- Create an electric code tapper
- Build a homemade battery to light an LED
- and more!
And in "Amazing Adaptations" we will
- Take home our own insect-eating plant
- Get a close-up look at nature’s weirdest creatures with Owen from the East Bay Vivarium
- Make a magnetic board to match birds to their food
- and more!
Space is available in both of these sessions as well as most other weeks at most locations for weekly signups, or daily drop-ins.
For more information about This Land is Your Land summer day camp or other programs offered by Sarah's Science, or to enroll in sessions at San Ramon, Oakland, or Berkeley, please visit our web site or call our office at (510) 581-3739 or send us an email.
Thanks for looking. Check back soon for more updates.
