Science 2020
Chairperson: Jerry Dievendorf
S1 Bugs and Slugs … Advanced!
Week: 6 Grades: 3 – 6
Bugs are everywhere! Want to learn the major insect groups and how they differ from spiders and other small creatures? We will use scientific methods to discover things about them using simple experiments, microscopic observation, and creation of an insect zoo.
Instructor: Jerry Dievendorf
S2 Science Fun
Week: 1, 2 Grades: 2 & 3
Do you know why certain animals live where they do? Explore the forest with us, probe the pond and swamp, examine evidence of deer activity and learn how to find salamanders, snakes, frogs and insects. Recognize animals from their tracks. We’ll conduct chemical tests of water and berries to make deductions about what certain animals eat and where they live. We will also examine stream beds to find fossils of ancient life, and we’ll try to guess what our environment might have been like in those earlier times. Come and have fun with us!!
Instructor: Jennifer Hess
S3 Party Garden!
Weeks: 2,3,4 Grades: 3-5
“You’re invited. Dress up yourself and the Workshop garden! A crazy party hat for you, a set of veggie markers for your plot. A game of can jam? Luminarias? Make something for the birds and something to plant. Using mostly recycled materials, found items from the land, and a lot of imagination, each day we will produce party hats, lights, games, and “favors” for the you and your garden. Lots of assembly required!”
Instructor: Chris Keefer
S4 Early Birders
Week: 1 Grades: 3 – 6
Forget the worms! Get handy with binoculars and start a life-long hobby of bird watching! Using sound and sight, you’ll find about 40 different birds at the Workshop, from elusive warblers to giant vultures. Learn tricks to entice birds close, experiment with bird feeding, take a daily bird hike, start your life list get creative with your new obsession!
Instructor: Chris Keefer
S6 Rocks & Fossils
Weeks: 1, 2, 3 Grades: 4 & up
Dig into the world of rocks, minerals and fossils. Learn about earthquakes, glaciers, volcanoes and much more! We go on hikes to various fossil-collecting sites, create model volcanoes, and learn to navigate the woods 7with ease (an essential life skill!) using a map and compass. We’ll complete the week with a “treasure” hunt!
Instructor: George Pafumi
S7 Swamping
Weeks: 1, 4 Grades: 2 – 4
Different plants and animals live in different parts of our swamp. We’ll spend the week discovering who lives in all that mud!
Instructor: Dee Strnisa
S8 Wee Beasties
Week: 4 Grades: 4 – 6
Explore the hidden microscopic universe of Heldeberg Workshop. Through the use of microscopes, we will learn just how different things look under powerful magnification. There are thousands of different forms of microbial life in the wilderness. We will search the entire Workshop for as many of these “wee beasties” as we can find. We will figure out how to protect ourselves from bad microbes that can harm us. And we will experiment with other microbes to do fun things, like make yeast bread. We will also learn how microscopes can help us solve crimes and study molecules like DNA.
Instructor: Dan Chaize
S9 Fossil Hunting
Weeks: 4, 5, 6 Grades: 3 & 4
Find the remains of organisms that lived here hundreds of millions of years ago! Learn about the prehistoric environment that these creatures lived in. Discover how to search for fossils in an area known for its geologic richness. Get your hands dirty identifying fossils such as trilobites, bryozoans, ancient corals, and many, many others, as we talk about their significance.
Instructor: George Pafumi
S10 Forest Ninjas
Week: 3 Grades: 3 – 6
When a ninja enters the forest, nothing moves without the ninja noticing – and yet – the ninja can move silently and unseen. How does the ninja do it? The birds are always communicating about who is moving around, and the ninja knows their language. The ninja has also practiced moving like animals so many times in martial arts classes that the ninja can move silently and unseen like the bobcat. Learn the ways of the ninja in the forest through stories, fun, games and – of course – sneaking around! Never again will your sibling be able to sneak up on you!
Instructor: Steve Young
S11 Advanced Forest Ninjas
Week: 4 Grades: 4 – 7
Just what is the secret of the Forest Ninjas that allows them to travel
undetected over the landscape? They befriend the birds of course! The
birds tell a ninja who is coming long before they arrive, giving her plenty
of time to disappear into the thicket undetected. And a ninja is careful
to respect the birds and blend into the forest, so that the birds never
give away his presence. Join us as we learn the language of the birds and
practice moving undetected over the landscape even with hundreds of kids and adults here for our summer programs. As our skills grow, the birds will allow us to see their private lives as they work hard to feed their
babies and keep them safe. They might even tip us off to the location of
the ferocious songbird eating machine otherwise known as the Coopers Hawk.
Instructor: Steve Young