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This year’s theme at the summer science camp was Science Through Gardening. The Camp
is sponsored by the PSU Nature Reach Program and the Sperry-Galligar Audubon Society. Delia
Lister is the program director and explains how this camp is different from the previous
camps. Delia Lister-“The idea was that, the kids used to come just for a week long
day camp and they had lots of questions about gardens and they wanted to harvest more and
they really wanted to spend a lot of time in the garden. So this year I decided to do,
instead of a week long, do week to week camps so the kids could measure how much the garden
would grow.” After learning what they needed to know in the classroom, the kids headed
to the garden where they’ve planted peppers, onions, beans and okra. Once they arrived
they began caring for their harvest. Hannah Eckstein-“Well this is my first day right
now and we’ve measured plants. We did, I got wet water the plants and we acted like
old timers and we had to carry buckets all around.” That’s right, according to the
kids, they were indeed doing “old timers work” by carrying water buckets while watering
their crops. Of course each kid had their favorite part about the summer camp and Jesse
explains why she loved picking the potatoes. Jesse Stone-“Because she planted two different
kinds in the same pot and you never knew what kind you were picking. Some were like a purplish
blue color and then others were golden.” All of the kids had fun interacting with each
other and interacting with the chickens that are helping fertilize the crops. Lister believes
the program has benefited the kids in several ways, especially when it comes to eating healthy.
Lister-“Oh we want kids to eat healthier and one of the best ways to get them to eat
vegetables is to have them plant their own and watch it grow and actually get to pull
it out of the dirt and get really really excited about it.”