June, 2002

Field Science

I was stomping down the trail, still tired form not getting any rest from the night before. I was ready for another boring field science class at Camp Howard. I walked along the road then turned in to the forest. My group and I walked down the path, past the pond , and to the tent where we sat down. Sloth our student leader started to talk about p.p.m. and d.o., I looked over where the other group was. They looked like they were having so much fun. I wished I was with them.

I turned my attention back to Sloth, I heard him say dangerous chemicals (that caught my ears). He made us put on safety goggles. We walked down the path towards the creek. I sat down the the old bridge while Sammy took the water's temperature. He told Conrad to fill the glass bottle full of water, he dipped it in the creek while the water rushed into it. Sloth told Heather to put the first chemical in the water filled glass. She put a couple drops in it, the water turned red. Next it was my turn to handle the "Dangerous" chemicals. I put some drops in and the water turned back to clear. After I was done I really didn't pay attention to them. I stared at the water, me and Conrad started to build up a little dam.

After we were done taking the tests we started back up the trail to the tent. We sat back down and talked about what we had just done. After a lot of talk we went back down to the creek. "Everybody grab nets, we're going to try and find wildlife." Sloth commanded. Everyone grabbed the nets before I could get one. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a torn up net. "This will have to do" I thought. I picked it up and climbed down all the roots by the little waterfall, I looked around and rolled over rocks but found nothing. So I walked further down to where Conrad and Marcus were, my net didn't seem like it would work so I tipped the rocks while Conrad was ready for the net. We did this for a couple of minutes until I heard Sloth yell, "Time to go." Me and Conrad walked back up the trail to the tent bummed that we didn't catch anything. The girls brought up the tub of animals.

I peered into the tub and saw two water skippers, a snail, and a mayfly larva. Sloth gave us cards that we had to fill out about the animal that we selected. After we finished Sloth pulled out pictures from his trip to Hawaii. He had one of a sea turtle, and a picture of his friends. The one I like the most was the one of the landscape, the clear blue ocean and the beautiful beach. When he was done showing us we walked down the trail, over the old bridge and to another spot.

A female student leader taught us about dams and how they work. After she was done with the lesson we walked over to the picnic tables where we sat down on the old benches with the rest of my class. We played games for a while, then we started back toward camp for lunch.

We walked back over the bridge, up the beautiful tree lined path, on the worn road, and to the dining hall.

by Dustin S., A-6

Camp Stories index
main page