Area girls explore STEM through summer camp

Summer may be a break from school but that doesn’t mean kids stop learning.

This summer, Montgomery County Community College, Schuylkill River Greenways, Green Valley Watershed Association and Take It Outdoors Adventures collaborated to create H2 YO!

The summer camp welcomed 24 middle school aged girls from all over to experience different facets of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, also known as STEM.

Each day of camp the girls got hands-on experiences designed to help students learn about the Schuylkill River Watershed and how different factors affect the health of the watershed.

“Today is our recreation day. We went out on the water and went kayaking together to get them to have a different perspective of the river. We went into Manatawny River and snorkeled yesterday. It was a lot of fun. So it’s just connecting them more with their local resources and teaching them why it’s important to protect them,” said Sarah Crothers, education coordinator for Schuylkill River Greenways.

Campers started out their week with some ice breakers and communitybuilding exercises.

They also got some experience in the lab learning about e-coli testing and had the chance to learn about reading maps through exercises involving scavenger hunts.

On Thursday, the group of 24 girls will be learning lessons on topography through exercises at French Creek in order to understand the flow of water. On Friday campers will do presentations to end the week.

“It’s a community-building thing and a resiliency building thing for girls. They’re coming in here not knowing anybody and a lot of them don’t know each other. We’re getting them to break-down that scary feeling of not having a community,” said Connie Nye, environmental educator, author and founder of Sweet Water Education Events Training.

“We’re also going after all these concepts of what the watershed is so they understand why this water is important and that it’s actually the source of drinking water for us. It’s also the source of our wastewater. Everybody’s contributing to this water whether they know it or not. Our mission is to know how we can positively affect the quality of that water,” she said.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SCHUYLKILL RIVER GREENWAYS Schuylkill River Greenways education coordinator Sarah Crothers, standing, assist two girls with river sample testing at the Montgomery County Community College west campus during the H2YO! Summer Camp. The week-long camp teaches a group of middle school girls about the Schuylkill River Watershed through hands on experiences such as water quality testing.

MARIAN DENNIS — MEDIANEWS GROUP Campers at H2YO! kayak the Schuylkill River and collect water samples as part of the integrated STEM camp.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SCHUYLKILL RIVER GREENWAYS NHA An instructor leads a group of girls in a snorkeling demonstration in the Manatawny Creek in Pottstown. The girls were part of the H2YO! Summer Camp, a weeklong activity that included lessons on the Schuylkill River Watershed through water testing, kayaking and more.

MARIAN DENNIS — MEDIANEWS GROUP Middle school-aged girls took part in a collaborative weeklong camp this summer that introduced them to STEM fields. On Wednesday, the girls took to the Schuylkill River, observing nature and taking water samples to analyze.

MARIAN DENNIS — MEDIANEWS GROUP Campers at H2YO! explore the Schuylkill River in kayaks as part of their recreation day.