Local students get to learn more about science at camp
By Josh Humphries
The Daily Reflector
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
During the summer many children spend their days watching television. But at EastCarolinaUniversity, children are watching explosions, building airplanes and learning about gravity.
Eastern North Carolina children interested in science are using their free summer months to participate in a science camp at ECU.
Greg Eans/The Daily Reflector
(ENLARGE)
EastCarolinaUniversity's Summer Science Camp Assistant Director Emily Langdon, right, prepares a chemical volcano experiment as Lane Jackson, 10, of VanceboroFarmLifeElementary School looks on Monday.
Children in grades 2-8 are filling 233 slots at the ECU Summer Science Camp, which is being held on campus.
Campers participated in a "Fizz, Boom, Bang" session Monday morning and watched the chemical reaction caused by placing a piece of Mentos candy in a bottle of soda. The reaction causes most of the soda to spew out of the top of the bottle and shoot several feet into the air.
"It was really cool," said Lane Jackson, 10.
Jackson comes to camp from his home in CravenCounty, where he attends VanceboroFarmLifeElementary School.
"I really like science. I am looking forward to the rest of the camp," Jackson said Monday, his first day at camp.
The day camp is divided into two sessions, one was held in June and the second started Monday.
Campers can choose to attend morning sessions, afternoon sessions, or both.
Campers learn about formulas, gravity and flight. Middle school students participate in crime scene investigation project, said camp coordinator Tammy Lee.
Lee said a grant from the Golden Leaf Foundation allowed 91 campers to attend the camp on scholarship. The curriculum for the camp was adopted from the Morehead Planetarium at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Lee said the program was started last year in anticipation of the future regional science center in eastern North Carolina. She said it was a way to get kids from Pitt and surrounding counties involved in science to generate interest before the center opens.
The counselors at the camp are ECU students who are planning to be science students.
Lee said the camp gives the college students a chance to teach in the classroom and encourages them to stay in North Carolina, where science teachers are in high demand.
"When they leave, they feel a lot more confident," Lee said of the college students. "This helps to recruit science teachers to ECU."
Lee read evaluations from children who participated in the camp last month.
"My favorite was getting to do science ourselves," one camper wrote. "At school, we read about it and watch videos and the teachers do it."
Josh Humphries can be contacted at and 329-9565.