By: Laura Waldo-Semken
Week One: Exploring Your Watershed
Activities at home: Boat Building, Scavenger Hunt, and Map Making
Campers were encouraged to map a water droplet in their watershed by using an online mapping tool.
Then explore the movement of water in their watershed by building a boat from just 2 pieces of foil.
During the scavenger hunt campers were encouraged to notice life in their watershed, like trees and birds. Campers became more aware of the idea that water supports life.
What does water support in your watershed that makes sounds? Campers were encouraged to make a “sound” map of their watershed.
Highlights during our virtual camp session:
Campers got to know each other by sharing an object that symbolizes a hobby or an interest. Some of the most memorable objects included a matchbox car, an aquarium, and a compound bow. Then we shared adventures from exploring the activities. Afterwards we played team building games. Encouraging group thinking like solving one-minute mysteries together is a great team builder. Try this one: A man left on Friday and returned on Friday but was only gone 3 days. How is this possible?
Week Two: Making a Difference in Your Watershed
Activities at home: Neighborhood clean-up, Bug Hunt, and Message in a Bottle (i.e. pen pal with another camper)
What an amazing group of campers! They ruled the “trash mob” challenge and went out to make a difference by cleaning up their neighborhood.
Many of the campers took advantage of being in a buggy place to explore bugs for the Bug Hunt. The Roly Poly discovery was my personal favorite. Who knew they were basically terrestrial shrimp?
The last activity was writing a letter to another camper. Cultivating a new friendship through letter writing was our environmentally responsible way of sending a “message in a bottle”.
Highlights during our virtual camp session:
We toured a trash barge on the Mississippi River. This was the highlight of the entire month for many campers! Rachel with Living Lands and Waters showed us around and we saw that one barge is for tires, one for scrap metal, and one just for trash. It was impressive and monumentally sad to see that so much garbage is in our rivers. We also got to see their toy collection and the creepy doll fence.
Another highlight was exploring real messages in bottles. Missouri River Relief has found many over the years. Campers got to choose which bottles to explore. It seems many are written as blessings for others and wishes for good fortune.
Week Three: Telling the Story of Your Watershed
Activities at home: Smoosh Book, Water Coloring, and Found Object Art
Campers got to create their own Smoosh Books. With just one piece of paper, campers made a 6 page book using Kirigami, the Japanese art of folding and cutting paper. These books were then used as journals.
Campers were also given supplies to create a watercolor that tells a story in their watershed. The results were so creative!
Last but not least campers learned about environmental artists and how they often work in harmony with the natural environment by using materials such as leaves, flowers, branches, soil, sand, stone and water. By doing so artists often change the way we view the environment and help us rethink how to "see" the world around us. Get ready to be amazed by what the campers created!
Highlights during our virtual camp session:
Glass whisperer Libby Reuter gave us a tour of her studio and introduced us to her watershed stories called Watershed Cairns. Each cairn, made from repurposed glass, is used to mark and visually connect people, land and water, providing an opening for community discussion about fresh water. Campers were then encouraged to tell their watershed story through a variety of artistic mediums including journaling in their smoosh book, water coloring and found object art. Evidence of how Libby inspired our campers can be seen below!
Week Four: Connecting Others to Your Watershed
Activity at home: Watershed Project
The watershed project activity allowed campers to synthesize everything they had experienced during camp. Over the past few weeks they had explored their watershed, completed a neighborhood clean-up to make a difference, and learned ways to use art to tell stories. Now they get to pick an issue they care about and create a project that explores that issue using any medium and then share it with other campers. Many campers mentioned that creating this project and sharing it was their favorite part of the entire month! Campers made posters, videos, and books using computers or paint to create impressive educational materials and artwork!
Highlights during our virtual camp session:
Sharing the watershed projects was the best! So many issues represented and so many creative ways to raise awareness about each issue. So proud of every camper!
More Highlights from our virtual camp session!
Campers also created a Diamante Group Poem. Each session created a unique poem:
Crawdad’s (Thursday AM) Camp Poem:
Stream
small, wet
running, flowing, walking
minnows, crawdads, plants, pools
scuttling, pooling, rocking
large, streams
Missouri River
Mussel’s (Thursday PM) Camp Poem:
Stream
bubbly, sparkly
glistening, running, meandering
life, light, lakes, abundance
lilting, eating, leaking
large, luscious,
Missouri River
Frog’s (Friday AM) Camp Poem:
Stream
fast, cold
flowing, rising, running
forest, rainforest, mountains, swamp
bubbling, gushing, fishing
slimy, smooth
Missouri River
Blue Heron’s (Friday PM) Camp Poem:
Stream
stinky, extreme
spelunking, speeding, falling
bark, nose, tree, litter
glittering, dying, sparkling
sticky, shpadoinkle!
Missouri River
And last but not least, as a warm up for writing the poems, campers were asked to name as many places as possible where water could collect in a watershed.
Collectively, they were able to name 60 places!
- Creek
- Pond
- Lake
- Street gutter
- Ocean
- Puddles
- Rivers
- Riverbanks
- Fields
- Valley
- Campfire ring
- Trash cans
- Rain garden
- Hole
- Trench
- Storm Drain
- Sewer
- Pipes
- Sinkhole
- Stream
- Sidewalk
- Waterfall
- Cave
- Reservoir
- Leaves
- Horse trough
- Tributaries
- House gutter
- Aquifer
- Spring
- Glaciers
- Snow
- Floodplain
- Wetland
- Marsh
- Bayou
- Delta
- Bog
- Fen
- Waterfall
- Sea
- Hot spring
- Geyser
- Icicles
- Well
- Ravine
- Canyon
- Plants
- Clouds
- Channels
- Oasis
- Peninsula
- Wood cracks
- Plant pots
- Rocks
- Volcano steam
- Skin
- Hair
- Pool
- Box
Amazing!
Thank you, campers, for making our first Watershed Expeditions a blast!