By: Grayson Meck, Virginia Tech Agricultural Sciences
Summer Day Camp Week 2: Horticulture
I am elated to say that our second week of day camps went very well, including participation from 10 of the 11 listed campers previously recorded. Unlike the previous week, I wasn’t simply going to sit by idly and watch Ed run the whole camp. In fact, I was in charge of running the very first day! My topic was primarily concerned with plant cycles, pollinators, and metamorphosis. When I woke up early Monday morning, I wasn’t nervous, per say, however I was a little bit worried that my activities wouldn’t fit the allotted 4 hours, that the campers would visibly not have a good time due to some of the dry subject matter, or that some other miscellaneous problem might arise. Once the campers arrived, I was excited to see that about 8 of them were returners from the previous weeks Food Camp and all were pretty excited that I would be leading that day and also participating in the camp for the rest of the week. We introduced ourselves, and dove straight into our pinwheel activity–which was essentially the four stages of a plant life cycles glued onto a straw and the plant grows as the camper spins it. The activity went surprisingly longer than I had intended, and after some discussion with Ed after that day had ended, we decided it was because I hadn’t actually done the activity myself and thus didn’t give the best directions to the campers on how best to craft their pinwheel. Around 9 o’clock, I moved onto the next activity which was a simple metamorphosis bracelet with the four stages of a butterfly separated by beads. I think the campers enjoyed this activity because eventually they just ripped off the stages and wore it as a beaded bracelet. Then from about 9:30-10 the campers were given a small clay pot and were given the chance to fingerprint lady bugs, bats, beetles, etc. along with a 4-H clover embedded with wild flowers to plant at home. Some of the campers were very creative here and made several out-of -the-box thumbprints! For our snack around 10 o’clock, students were given a banana, two pretzels, two cranberries, and two apple slices to form a neat looking butterfly snack, which all of them devoured quickly after completing them. Next was our BEE a pollinator activity in which students acted as bees and walked to their neighbors brown paper bag with a flower drawn on it to touch the drawing and gain a better understanding about pollinators and the methods with which plants can transfer pollen from one plant to the next. The following activity (which can be seen up top in an image of one of the aquaponics basil plant) was the campers’ favorite as they learned that several plants do not need soil to grow. Using a Ball mason jar, a net pot, clay rocks, and a basil seed, the students assembled their own aquaponics basil plant that they could take home and show to their parents. This was fun for me as well because I enjoy coming to the office every morning to check and see how well my basil plant is doing! My first obstacle came after this activity, however, because it didn’t take nearly as long as I had planned and I had been planning on performing a flower dissection, but Ed and I hadn’t communicated well over the weekend to remember to purchase flowers for that activity. But a simple review activity that I had printed in the case of something like this happening was just long enough to fill the void in time, and the students used different shaped pasta to glue onto a four leafed piece of paper with labels to review the life cycle of a butterfly. The final 10 or so minutes were spent coloring a coloring page and a crossword puzzle I had brought in case there was a few extra minutes. In the end I learned quite a lot from that day, mostly that much like the job of an Extension Agent, there will be on-the-go issues that agents will have to combat in their actual programs, as well. I was prepared well enough to fill that block of time with an extra activity and all ended well. On Tuesday, a second year intern from Hanover (Savannah, also a Virginia Tech student) led the fruits and vegetables day filled with some cool activities as well and I helped wherever needed. Edward finished of Wednesday and Thursday covering insects and floral arrangements. It was a very cool experience to lead a program and not only see how Edward’s teaching/leading style differed from Miss Kim and Miss Kendra’s from the week before. Of course, the campers saw me as a fun, young teacher that they could get away with certain things, so I did have to make them realize I didn’t deserve to be disrespected just as much as Mr. Ed or their previous two agents. I really enjoyed this week and I am so excited for a short next week with Fourth of July coming up. My plans are to meet with Miss Kendra about helping with activities for July 8th-11th Craft Day Camp. Stay tuned for next weeks updates!
Grayson Meck's Blog 