Another Successful Summer for STEM Camp at Marian University

By the looks on these faces, it seems that our STEM Campers had a blast this summer! We had 186 students representing 90 schools over four weeks of camp, with many of those students attending multiple weeks. Each week had a different theme, and the campers were kept busy and learned a lot while having fun too. Week one focused on Living Things, and campers went creek stomping and found snails and crayfish, and some students even simulated how they would build a dam if they were a beaver! They also went to the Indianapolis Zoo to learn about all the living things there. Week two's focus was on Chemistry, Physics, and So Much More! Campers learned about centrifugal force, made kaleidoscopes and ice cream, and designed labs to test Newton's laws. Their trip for week two was Conner Prairie where they got to explore the new treehouse exhibit. Week three was Earth and Space, and campers learned about clouds, phases of the moon, fossils, wrote in their scientific journals, and got to visit the Children's Museum's new exhibit "Beyond Spaceship Earth" and their ever popular "Dinosphere" exhibit. Week four was a new addition this year, and the theme was STEM in Nature! Campers spent a lot of time in the Nina Mason Pulliam EcoLab throughout all weeks of camp, but this week they focused on learning more about nature and Indiana wildlife in the EcoLab as well. They learned how to be better planet stewards and about resource conservation, made bird and bat houses, decorated their own reusable bags, and visited Holliday Park. Some of our older campers spent some time in the pond - literally! They put on waders and used a piece of equipment called a Hydrolab to conduct water quality testing. The Hydrolab is what real scientists in the field use for water quality testing in the Great Lakes, and the campers had a lot of fun being water quality scientists for a day! We were very fortunate to have our guest speakers, Dave Tucek, Guy Hansen, and Mark Booth, come to teach our STEM Campers about their specialties. Dave Tucek is a Warning Coordination Meterologist and he taught campers about the NOAA and severe weather and how we should respond to it. Guy Hanson demonstrated the wonders of chemistry (and had campers help!) in his Chemistry is a Blast presentation sponsored by Eli Lilly. Mark Booth is a Master Falconer and he did a Bird of Prey presentation with his feathered friends. It was amazing to see his Harris' hawk flying above our heads in the EcoLab field! We are already planning for next year's STEM Summer Camps at Marian University, so stay tuned! For more information on our camps and other K-12 programming, visit our website or contact Janice Hicks Slaughter, jhslaughter@marian.edu.