Youth summer camps focus on natural environment

AgriLife Extension, others offer nature-education camps in San Antonio

By: Paul Schattenberg, 210-859-5752, paschattenberg@ag.tamu.edu

Contact: Ruby Zavala, 210-631-0400, Ruby.Zavala@ag.tamu.edu

SAN ANTONIO – The water cycle, plant biology and composting were among the topics and related activities presented at the Youth Summer Garden Day Camp held recently at the Pan American Branch Library in San Antonio.

Students from several elementary schools throughout the city attended the camp – one of three  being offered this summer by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service in Bexar County and others.

“These camps are for young people aged seven to 10 who are interested in things like plants, gardening, entomology, earth science and nature in general,” said Ruby Zavala, AgriLife Extension youth gardens coordinator for Bexar County.

The four-day camp at the Pan American Library included instruction and hands-on activities related to a variety of nature-related topics. Education stations were set up throughout the library for the more than 70 second- and third-grade students who attended.

Students learned about what people and plants need to live, composting, decomposers and what insects live in the soil. They also learned how plants and animals use oxygen and carbon dioxide, how animals and insects use camouflage, how cactus and other plants adapt during times of drought or excess rain, finding a garden location and other topics.

The event also included arts and crafts activities such as making a “plant person,” seed mosaic, terrarium necklace, plant life cycle bracelet, bird feeder, fairy garden and container garden for butterfly-attracting plants.

“Along with the instruction, these arts and crafts activities were to teach the kids about different aspects of nature,” Zavala said. “For example, the terrarium necklace taught them about the water cycle. The seed mosaic taught them about the sizes, shapes and types of seeds. And the plant lifecycle bracelet used pipe cleaners and pony beads to show the stages of plant growth.”

At her station, Zavala taught students about the water cycle.

“I provided instruction about the water cycle, including the concepts of condensation and precipitation,” Zavala said. “But what the kids really enjoyed was making their terrarium necklaces where they could put soil, water and seeds into a small transparent plastic sphere they could wear around their neck. It was like creating an entire miniature ecosystem.”

Sara Mat, a second-grader at Hutchins Elementary School who attended the camp, said she enjoyed the lessons as well as the arts and crafts.

“I really like science and math,” she said. “I liked learning about the soil and about plants and the water cycle. I even have a small garden in my yard.”

Instructors also used a large flower model to teach attendees about the arrangement of floral components and the reproductive function of flowers. They also showed students how to do leaf rubbings with crayons to see the patterns inside the shape of leaves.

At one station, Margaret Bass, using a lesson from the Junior Master Gardener curriculum, taught students about leaves and how to identify them. Junior Master Gardeners is an international horticultural program of AgriLife Extension emphasizing youth education through lessons learned in gardening and horticulture.

“I guess we did what you might call the Leaf Olympics,” Bass said. “We talked about the structure and function of leaves and I explained that leaves have parallel and netted veins. Then I told them there are two kinds of leaves – the monocots, which have the parallel veins, and dicots, which have the netted veins. We also showed the student how to use the side of a crayon to make a leaf rubbing to transfers the leaf pattern onto paper so they could identify what kind of leaf they were given.”

At another station, Bexar County Master Gardener Jesse Valdez taught students about composting and explained how compost is beneficial to gardens.

Robert Michels, a school counselor assigned to Sinclair Elementary, said the students from his school enjoyed the camp and were delighted to be able to do something away from the traditional classroom. His group, Super Stars of East Central Independent School District, consisted of 60 second- and third-grade students who participated in the camp as their summer field trip.

“My second- and third-graders got a kick out of the camp and all the hands-on activities,” Michels said. “Many of them enjoy gardening and spend time in the garden we have at the school. So it’s good they could come here and learn more about gardening and other topics apart from just book work. This also gives them a chance to see how they can apply that book work.”

Zavala said AgriLife Extension and others will be offering additional camps this summer. For more information on these camps, contact Zavala at Ruby.Zavala@ag.tamu.edu.