The Greenway Foundation

Revitalizing Rivers. Reconnecting Communities.

Mad Scientists Week at Summer Camp

​CAMPERS USE NATURE TO INSPIRE INVENTIONS

Week Five at SPREE’s Adventures Outside Day Camps was all about experimenting and inventing! We learned a lot from nature, took apart old machines, and even made our own inventions that could help the South Platte River. Below are a just a few of the highlights from our Mad Scientists Week.

We made clay volcanoes and watched them erupt. We learned how to use everyday food items and flowers to make natural dyes and prints.  ​

Campers got inventive when they made protective holders for eggs using recycled materials. Then we tested them out with an egg drop!
Guest Speaker Ben Harkins visited both camps and taught campers how to make a light bulb using simple materials (http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Light-Bulb/). We were amazed to see them light up!
SPREE campers presented their inventions on Friday. We also got creative and learned how to make Gak (recipe below).
We continued to watch our monarch caterpillars (from Week 3) grow and campers helped care for them. Finally, we closed the week with a graduation ceremony, where everyone received a Collector’s Edition Chompers Trading Card.
Thank you for bringing in tools and donating your old machines this week! 

Gak
Materials: lots of white glue, water, food coloring, hot water heater, borax, large ziplock plastic bags, measuring tools
Amphibians have very sensitive skin. It is what you call “permeable.” The skin can easily absorb things in its environment. The skin is often moist to the touch. The “frog skin” we will make resembles what a frog feels like.
Recipe: 
Ingredients:  
¼ cup of white glue (Elmer’s or generic brand is fine)
¼ cup water
food color 
¼ cup of hot tap water
½ Tablespoon of Borax                       
Make two separate mixtures and then add Mix1 into Mix 2.
Mix1:  ¼ cup of white glue with ¼ cup of water. Add color of your choice. Mix well in plastic bag.
Mix2: In a separate bowl, dissolve a ½ tablespoon of Borax in a ¼ cup of hot water.
Pour Mix1 into Mix2. Kneed and squish. Mix1 will turn into gak instantly. Pull the gak out of the liquid. The gak will be wet for about 5 minutes and then will be ready for play!
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