Putting a spin on summer camp

museumcamp072: Kern County Museum Summer Camp
As Mick Finch watches, Brianna Frehner sets her hovercraft spinning, while Haley Judd readies hers for its first voyage.
What do you get when you gather several children together at the Kern County Museum and have them paste two pictures opposite each other on drinking straws, and then have them rub the straws furiously, back-and-forth in their hands? You have the children putting a "spin" on the museum's summer day camp, of course. The children who did the spinning during a one week summer day camp said the experience was "fun," and they learned something, too.

"Because the brain processes faster than the eyes can keep up, the two pictures spinning together appear as though they are one image," said summer day camp teacher Stephanie Davis.

The day camps which began on June 11 and conclude on Aug. 17 offer age-appropriate sessions featuring entertaining and educational adventures with science, history and geography.

During the week of July 9-13, younger children were experiencing Kitchen Science, while the older campers were learning the ABCs of Science -- Astronomy, Biology and Chemistry. All of the sessions feature interactive activities which are so engaging they make the campers want to know, "why?"

As an example, in one classroom Cade Sakamoto was squeezing so hard on a plastic bottle of water that his cheeks were puffing out. But, as he did, a small packet of ketchup inserted into the top of the bottle began to sink towards the bottom. When he let go, the ketchup packet rose right back up to the top. Sakamoto and the other children learned from summer teacher Christina Granillo that the air bubble inside the ketchup packet was made smaller because of the pressure Sakamoto was exerting on the bottle. That made the weight of the packet heavier in the water causing it to sink. When he took his hands off the bottle, the packet rose right back to the top of the bottle because the air bubble inside the packet was returned to its original form.

All kinds of experiments were going on -- so entertaining that the campers probably did not realize that they were being educated at the same time. The older children were learning some principles of aviation to go along with their session on astronomy. Using a paper pie plate a square of cardboard and a balloon, they created their own mini-hovercraft that went spinning across their desks as the air in the balloon was set free.

Camper Jacob Clark stood with some other students who dropped creatively cut paper objects from their hands and watched as the objects twisted and floated to the ground. Teacher Davis had taught them how to make paper helicopters.

"I’m not sure how it works, but if you put a paper clip on the bottom it pulls it down by adding weight," Clark said.

Back in the younger campers’ classroom, young Mekenna Walker was helped into an apron by Granillo, who explained to Walker that the next experiment would probably get her clothes wet if she wasn’t wearing an apron. During the next few moments, Walker displayed all kinds of reactions. Granillo had put pinholes in the front of the bottle, filled it with water and then fastened the cap tightly on the bottle. When she started to unscrew the cap, water began spraying out of the holes onto Walker’s apron. At first a look of surprise crossed her face, then a frown and then she began laughing. Granillo explained to her that once the air pressure that was holding the water inside was released so was the water.

Learning about aviation had some nutritional benefits for Breanna Ingle-Herrera.

"I learned how to get all the planets in order then had dried ice cream -- the kind the astronauts eat," Ingle-Herrera said. "It was good, and I was surprised because it tasted just like regular ice cream."

Family schedules were taken into consideration by the museum who offered the week long summer camps in both half day and full day sessions. Costs for half day sessions were $85 a week for museum members and $100 a week for nonmembers. Full day sessions were $160 a week for museum members and $190 a week for nonmembers. The camps are popular. Although sessions remain for July 30-Aug. 3, Aug. 6-10 and Aug. 13-17, they are all sold out.


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