Earthquakes and hurricanes, oh my!
August 28, 2011 8:36 AM Subscribe
Anyone have good post-disaster projects to do with kids at camp tomorrow?
The hurricane's raging outside now, but the weather's projected to be beautiful, and we're trying to come up with some fun post-hurricane projects for kids who've been cooped up for two days in the rain.
The theme for this session is "Life: natural and artificial." Other projects include: robotics, spectrometers, aerial photography, doing some stuff with conway's game of life, and doing a lot of hiking. Last week we spent the entire week collecting and cataloging mushrooms. Given that we had an earthquake last week and a hurricane this weekend, I'd love to augment this with some good weather projects.
Current ideas include:
1) Trip to the beach to collect trash and seaweed
2) Making boats (in case our basement is flooded)
3) Make spectrometers and collect water samples from different puddles to see what's washed up
Thoughts?
The hurricane's raging outside now, but the weather's projected to be beautiful, and we're trying to come up with some fun post-hurricane projects for kids who've been cooped up for two days in the rain.
The theme for this session is "Life: natural and artificial." Other projects include: robotics, spectrometers, aerial photography, doing some stuff with conway's game of life, and doing a lot of hiking. Last week we spent the entire week collecting and cataloging mushrooms. Given that we had an earthquake last week and a hurricane this weekend, I'd love to augment this with some good weather projects.
Current ideas include:
1) Trip to the beach to collect trash and seaweed
2) Making boats (in case our basement is flooded)
3) Make spectrometers and collect water samples from different puddles to see what's washed up
Thoughts?
I don't know if you're set up for it, but once in an oceanography class we went seining right after a tropical storm. This was off the coast of NJ, but it was awesome because we seined up tons of small tropical fish not normally in these waters. That occasioned some great discussion about ocean currents, water temperatures, habitats etc.
posted by Miko at 9:02 AM on August 28, 2011
posted by Miko at 9:02 AM on August 28, 2011
A rain and insects project?
Flying insects (mosquitoes!) lay eggs in puddles (get samples and look at them under a microscope). Talk about how puddles are safe for larva because they don't have large fish or currents, but if the puddle is too small and dries up too quickly then the larva die.
Insects living in trees... Show how insect damage makes a tree more susceptible to storm damage, but then the fallen wood makes a home for new insects.
Burrowing insects... Rain makes the ground soft enough for ants to start new burrows, they also have some nifty strategies for dealing with flooding.
posted by anaelith at 9:05 AM on August 28, 2011
Flying insects (mosquitoes!) lay eggs in puddles (get samples and look at them under a microscope). Talk about how puddles are safe for larva because they don't have large fish or currents, but if the puddle is too small and dries up too quickly then the larva die.
Insects living in trees... Show how insect damage makes a tree more susceptible to storm damage, but then the fallen wood makes a home for new insects.
Burrowing insects... Rain makes the ground soft enough for ants to start new burrows, they also have some nifty strategies for dealing with flooding.
posted by anaelith at 9:05 AM on August 28, 2011
This is perhaps not scientific enough for our needs, but once I worked at a camp and we did a great project where the kids had to pick up trash/sticks/etc. from all around the camp and make them into giant animal sculptures.
posted by HeroZero at 11:11 AM on August 28, 2011
posted by HeroZero at 11:11 AM on August 28, 2011
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Lots of science activities submitted by museums, aquariums, etc. Looks like they have more earthquake stuff than hurricane, but it's a resource I use frequently.
posted by leastlikelycowgirl at 8:51 AM on August 28, 2011