Students enjoying the winter experience
Day 3
In the morning after breakfast, we went to the class “Journey to the River.” Keith was once again our instructor and he started the class by asking the kids to take a piece of paper that had part of a river on it and part land. The students were told to pick something from another pile of papers they’d like to put on that land, with examples being a mall, a canoe livery, wetlands, a national park, and a movie theater. The students then put all the pieces together to form the Cuyahoga River. As they added a piece, they talked about the impact their choice would have on the rest of the river as it flowed downstream. Many of them exclaimed that they’d like to change their choices! After that exercise, we climbed aboard a bus and went into downtown Peninsula to test the water at the Cuyahoga by the canals and towpath. We talked about different pollutants and were told that we were to test for three things: dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and sulfites in the water. After our test results, we were to give each a grade. Unfortunately the water failed or received a D for each test. The oxygen levels were low, the turbidity, or how much you could see through the water (was it clear?) was low, and the sulfites were not the correct levels. We talked about the reasons this could be, and had a lively discussion on how things could improve. We also learned a bit about the canal’s history and got to walk into a lock area that was no longer in use. After our water testing we headed back to the Center for lunch.
The afternoon’s class was held in the November Lodge, and eco-friendly building on site. The first order of business was a scavenger hunt throughout the building to help the students learn about eco-friendly buildings and also the characteristics of this particular building. They learned about wind turbines, solar panels, carpeting made of recycled plastic bottles, and manufactured wetlands, to name a few. After the scavenger hunt, the instructor (Erin again) gave the kids lots of paper, cardboard boxes, straws, etc. and they were given the challenge of creating their own eco-friendly building. They could choose form a home, a mall, a theme park, and restaurant. Our group of kids chose a home, with a rain barrel, recycling, antique furniture, solar panels and a wind turbine. Apparently they were planning on using LOTS of energy!
After dinner, the each of the different groups, who had all gone through the “Ecoplace” class at some point during the week, were charged with presenting their project to the other groups. It was really amazing to see what they came up with for an eco-friendly building. There were all of the types of buildings represented: restaurant, water park, home, and mall. I was truly impressed. After the presentations, there was a slideshow of the pictures the kids had taken throughout the week with camp digital cameras. Adam, one of the staff people, told a story and then the students got to choose a couple of their favorite sill songs from the week. Afterwards, we all went back to our dorms to prepare for talent night. Talent night was something I was not aware of when I signed up for this gig. The girls had obviously given much thought to their talents, and it was a great time. We got to see gymnastics, dancing, and many girls chose to put their own spin on the camp songs we had learned. THEN the girls wanted the adults to do something. Most used the distraction technique, but I figured, what the heck? I did a marvelous lip synch rendition of Weird Al Yankovich’s “White and Nerdy,” complete with my own very white, very nerdy, dance moves. I am happy to say that no cameras were present. At least I hope not.
