Science Outdoors

The Learning Cycle: exploration leads to concept formation that motivates students toward concept application.

Exploration- introductory activities that pique the students' interests, share with them some of the "tools of the trades," focus their mental processes and leave them eager for more.

Concept Introduction- as they explore, the interjection of key science concepts on an "as needed" basis suggested by student-generated questions and research.

Concept Application- by exploring possible patterns, analyzing collected data, using their scientific reasoning, students generate possible explanations and understandings reflecting their comprehension of the system. In turn, applying their knowledge and interests leads them to use data for more effective analysis applied to problems, questions and decision-making.

Ready to be Scientists! These key skills underlie the process of scientific exploration.

Observing: using one's senses to gather and record information about the characteristics of objects or situations along with their interactions.

Communicating: sharing one's records with others to bring together two or more people's thoughts and insights.

Comparing: looking for patterns of similarities and differences among situations.

Organizing: grouping or classifying, ordering and sequencing of collected data to illuminate potentially meaningful patterns.

Relating: exploring the application of one's understanding by developing a hypothesis and testing its application to a new situation.

Inferring: by recognizing relationships, patterns, and processes, developing more comprehensive theories and creating a synthesis of these to apply in other arenas or to other problems.

Application: using one's knowledge to solve problems that depend on a careful analysis of each situation and the relevant science (Freely adapted from, From Ridges to Rivers: Watershed Explorations, a 4-H curriculum from the SERIES Program at U.C. Davis).

Each session will integrate a number of topics and teach skill and content that supports both learning as well as the application of this knowledge and skills in the application for each research team.

The Biological Communities Session could focus on the living community and its relationship to its surroundings. Students will explore the concept of adaptations, develop an understanding for the importance of physical and behavioral adaptations for survival, and relate these concepts back to a concept of their habitat or niche in a community. Students will understand the implications of connections relationships within communities.

Key concepts: ecological relation, niches and habitats, adaptation and morphology, testing a hypothesis.

The Streams and Forestry Session could focus on surveys of streams and techniques that relate the stream to its environs such as the role of the riparian areas to a stream's living community, the importance of transition zones and their richness in terms of diversity. Along with their fieldwork, students will use other techniques to develop a broader picture of streams, as they relate to a community, by introducing an ethnographic survey along with perspectives from literature.

Key concepts: use of data vs. perceptions, relationships between forest and stream, riparian zone as primary production, human impact.

The Watershed Session will focus on the characteristics of a stream and develop assessment techniques to collect data on streams including: flow rates, stream debris, temperature, chemistry, and other characteristics. In this way an overview of a stream's signature will be created that, in turn, will relate to the living community in the stream. Data collection will include stream's macro-invertebrates and a survey of other populations. Students will examine connections between the living community and the stream's non-living features.

Key concepts: stream food webs, measuring stream characteristics, primary production in the stream, nutrient cycling, changes in streams over the year Seminars and Workshops (some small group, some whole group).

In concert with the foundations sessions, the workshops will support students' skills in research, in communications, in the numerical analysis of data, and in the presentation and publication of their research findings.

The communications skills workshops will include team-based research and communication, recording data and keeping journals, healthy camp participation, healthy diet, presentation strategies and materials.

The computer workshops will include Internet-based research, uses of web sites, using computers for data collection, publication of research on the web and creating other presentation materials using computers.

Research Projects

Each team will spend time in the field in laboratories, doing research. At first these could be large sessions but as the camp progresses, groups will be the smaller research groups (4-5 students working with 2 adults) on their own project that will lead to their presentations.

Research Questions

Each research team will use a collection of methods, from surveys to stream comparisons, to approach their research problem. While the research teams will have a central focus, or method, by which they will answer their question, each student can specialize. This specialization will focus their poster sessions and the materials they wish to share in their individual displays. In this way, students' projects can overlap and yet have an individual presentation or specialization to complement their teams' focus.

Team/community building

The importance of community to a successful camp should not be understated. For students to participate effectively, they need a supportive community including, but not limited to, their peers and instructors. Toward this end the camp will include many activities, both infused and separate, that support this goal. They include "Family" meetings to discuss procedures and behavior, recreation/challenge activities, arts and crafts activities, and games.

For more information about curriculum framework for Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp, contact:

Ryan Collay- Programming and Evaluation Coordinator
The Science and Math Investigative Learning Experiences Program
Oregon State University, 18 Gladys Valley Center
Corvallis OR 97331
(541) 737-3553
ryan.collay@smile.oregonstate.edu
osu.orst.edu/precollege/TheSMILE

Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp Blog