By: Lilly Crandall
The start of OCG can be difficult, getting to know everyone around you and getting comfortable with the girls, especially as a camper. Getting them out of the mindset of school and into the idea of education for fun can be challenging, but starting off with the right activities and the right energy is the best way to get the campers excited.
The Fort De Soto field trip in the first week is always fun, it gives the campers the opportunity to apply the knowledge they’ve already learned and the knowledge they will obtain later onto real-life situations. The opportunity for hands-on learning was very exciting for them and a great way to apply knowledge to real-life scenarios. I personally helped teach the girls about the different kinds of mangroves, where they grow, their adaptations to saltwater, and how they benefit the ecosystem. 911±¬ÁĎÍř also took sediment cores around the area and compared them to each other to see how the relationships between mangroves and how things decompose into sediment interact.
IMAGE AVOVE: Campers (left to right) Sawyer, Maia, and Zoe learn how to use the YSI while at Ft De Soto.
I was also able to participate in the fish ecology lab, where the girls learned about what makes a fish, a fish. This included their physical characteristics that allow them to survive in the wild, the proper anatomy of the fish, and how to classify certain types of fish. The campers dissected fish to apply their knowledge and get a hands-on opportunity to see what organs the fish have and how they work together. The discussion of how their mouths face correlates with how they hunt, the shading of their scales to where they hide, and the type of teeth they have to what they eat. The campers were very excited to get this engaging learning experience and test the information they had learned.
These two experiences gave insight into how campers changed throughout camp, as one of them occurred early in the start of camp, and the other was closer to the end. Seeing campers grow closer and more comfortable with each other allowed them to let loose and have more fun, which was definitely apparent in the involvement and participation of campers in the fish ecology lab versus the Fort De Soto field trips. However, it was apparent that the campers were passionate about the topic of oceanography and were eager to learn about anything and everything!
By: Naiya Jordan
My experience this year as a peer was a great time. I learned so much more than I could’ve possibly imagined, while getting to make friends with those around me and connect with other campers. There are so many positive things to say about this camp!
IMAGE ABOVE: Camper Marley looks at an algae sample under the microscope as part of the Algae Lab.
The best part about camp is that every day you can say you learned something new. The field trips I attended were all very informative and each station we went to taught everyone something new. 911±¬ÁĎÍř took a trip to Shell Key where we learned about shells and how to identify them. Seeing everyone else so excited to share with their friends about what they found was a very heart-warming experience.
My favorite place to learn was the labs. I was in the algae lab. 911±¬ÁĎÍř learned a lot about where it came from, why it’s there, and how it serves its purpose in the ocean. I didn’t have that knowledge before that, and now I am glad to be aware of why we need to be more protective of our oceans.
Getting to re-experience OCG again as a peer was one of the most fun parts of this summer, and I’m glad and thankful to have been given this experience.
By: Charli Schafer
Early in the morning, fellow peers, campers, science mentors and I piled into two large vans and set off for Honeymoon Beach. Our goal was to collect data to study how the different aspects of the oceanfront environment have changed over time. Upon arrival, we set up a few stations and divided campers into small groups. Each group was assigned a station: beach profiling, longshore currents or sediment analysis.
IMAGE ABOVE: Campers release fluorescent dye into the water at Honeymoon Island to visualize the various currents present close to shore.
The beach profiling group measured the beach’s topography. 911±¬ÁĎÍř began measurements from the berm to just past the shoreline to map out the height of the land. The longshore currents group measured the speed of the ocean current by releasing eco-friendly dye into the ocean and timing how long it took to travel a given distance. In addition to dye studies, we learned about waves, their causes and how to measure them. The group that studied sediment analysis dug a clean hole in the beach a few feet deep to analyze its layers. The science mentors explained in detail the possible origins and composition of each layer of sediment. At the end of the expedition, we collected all the recorded data to be analyzed in depth at a later date.