Camp enriches students
The weeklong Viking Explorations camp at Berry College also helps broaden kids’ social environment through interactions with peers from other schools.
For the 126 gifted students at the Viking Explorations camp at Berry College this week, their attendance isn’t just about exploring their educational interests, but about exposing themselves to a new social environment outside of their own schools, said Berry Elementary teacher Lori Frederick.
The camp for students in third to eighth grades started Monday and will end Friday. Students choose two courses from the 11 offered — such as CSI Crime Stoppers, Feel the Rhythm or Experimenting with Science — and spend an hour and a half in each. The courses are taught at McAllister Hall, which is the college’s science building, by teachers from Berry Elementary and Middle School along with those from Floyd County Schools.
Walking in on these courses in progress can leave an observer finding kids doing everything from making animal sounds as they shuffle past each other without stepping outside of a rope boundary to measuring the distance toy cars of varying weights travel when released down a ramp while working through the scientific method.
In the Aquatic Habitats class on Wednesday morning, students got their hands dirty and worked with clay to make animal figures of their choice, from a whale to a snail to a sea urchin. Earlier in the week, they put together their own aquatic habitat with mosquito larvae inside.
The Computer Coding course saw kids test out Makey Makey invention kits while learning about electric currents and the difference between conductors and insulators.
The students attached some alligator clips to leaves or slivers of onion, and while holding a clip of their own, they would use their body as a conductor, passing electricity through it, by touching the organic material.
When this happened, the Makey Makey that was attached to a laptop through a USB cord would trigger music to be played.
Frederick and her fellow Berry Elementary teacher Julie Trejo teach the Hiking Through History course, which leads students on tours to some of the many historic sites on campus. Trejo said kids may not know the history behind places like the House O’ Dreams, but they will say things like “my dad proposed to my mom here” or mention a relative who helped build it.
Trejo said the camp also provides an opportunity for teachers in the Floyd County school system to fulfill requirements to become a certified gifted teacher.
Spending the week at Berry, Frederick said, is a way for youngsters to develop familiarity with a college campus by simply walking the halls and sitting in the labs or classrooms.