VGCC to hold first Science Camp for middle schoolers

Area parents now have the opportunity to enroll their children in a new summer activity that promises not only to be fun but also to pique their curiosity about the natural sciences. Vance-Granville Community College’s first Science Camp will be held June 13-17 on the college’s main campus in Henderson. Young people preparing to enter grades six through eight are invited to participate in the camp, which will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day.

 

Sessions will be taught by VGCC Science Department faculty members and are scheduled to cover topics such as fossils, plants, animals, water and the organisms that live in it, and the workings of the human heart. Others include a session on Aquaponics, entitled “Grow a Garden with No Dirt!” Students will learn how to create a system of food production in which plants and fish feed each other, and learn how food cycles are essential to life and to our food supply. In another session, students will learn about bluebirds and will actually build their own bluebird house to take home. In “Play With Your Food,” students learn about how microbes are used in making some foods, and then they will use this knowledge to make yogurt and bread. Students will learn not only in the college’s classrooms and labs but also outdoors, as they study nature on campus.

 

The cost to attend the week-long camp is $125, which includes lunch each day.

 

“Middle school is a pivotal age for children, when they often start to make their plans for higher education,” according to VGCC Biology instructor Button Brady. “Middle school is a great age at which we can expose students to concepts that will help them to get ready for further science education and prepare them for the jobs of the future, which increasingly depend on science and math skills.”

 

Registration forms for the camp have been distributed to area middle schools. For more information, contact VGCC Science program head Steve McGrady at (252) 738-3339.