Career Discovery Internship Program with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Week 6: July 9-13

Monday was the first day of camp! it was great! I was nervous at first but when I met those kids it all went away. We had a great first day. I did an intro to alternative energy with them which is part of the theme this week. I had them play a game without telling them what I was going to talk to them about. They're all smart kids so they got it! Energy! This group had a lot of energy and they were so excited. I explained to them what nonrenewable and renewable meant and how we get our energy to power our homes, schools, and cities. I was amazed at how little I had to do lol They new the meaning and examples! I clarified a few things and encouraged quieter kids to jump in but other than that we had a great first day! I felt so accomplished that my lesson went well and my supervisors said I did a good job. I'm glad that I could engage the children but was really pleased that they understood the negative effects generating electricity has on the environment, animals, and ourselves. I explained to them how extracting nonrenewable sources of energy have a impact on wildlife and how augmented that becomes as we rely heavily on these sources for power. Then they said, "Ms. Shanita we need to use the sun more often". I thought that was the cutest thing :) Young conservationist :) I hope this generation maintains that attitude and does not get caught up in the fast advancement of technology. That's where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Student Conservation Assoc. comes into play!
On Tuesday, we focused on pollinators so we did a flower dissection and did bee cups. The bee cup experiment was interesting for a couple different factors. We had the kids put soapy water in blue, yellow, and white cups then asked them to predict whether the pollinator garden or the open field by would get more insects/variety. They all chose the pollinator garden including myself! lol But the results where total opposite. The open field got more insects with a greater variety, including a butterfly. The children impressed me when they said that the field attracts more insects because people do not go over there but people are always in the pollinator garden. Their ability to make connections and assumptions such as those show me that environmental camps are essential in this sense. The camps fill in the blanks schools can't. Moving on...
We had our first night hike!!! (Well since I've been working here lol) We were in search of nocturnal animals but mostly bugs that come out at night! The campers and their parents were encouraged to come and participate. We had a lot of fun! We didn't see a red fox but maybe next time :)
Wednesday was a fun day because we went fishing! I learned how to cast that day and then was able to help the campers. We fished in the spot where we had our fishing day a few weeks ago so it was nice and shady! Again, all the children got involved and had fun!
The next day we cooked hot dogs and smores in homemade solar cookers! We talked about solar energy and how we can use the sun to cook, keep us warm, etc. Then we had invited the parents to have lunch with us to celebrate the end of camp. We only had about 2 parents come in! Whaaat! lol The food was yummy and the children were jumping off the walls from the smores by the time they began to leave haha
On Friday, Tajuan, Frankie, and I tagged along with the SCA high school crews to Lincoln University. Dr. Baskerville who is a professor in the bio department at Lincoln invited the crews for a tour and a discussion about a college career as well as careers in the sciences. The refuge manager came with us as well and spoke to the crews. It was a nice visit and interesting to see the crews reaction. They were pretty quiet but didn't show any sign that they didn't want to be there. Hopefully they were silently taking everything in and holding on to it!