Published: August 10, 2007 11:46 am            

Students turned into ‘mad scientists’

If you thought “gross” meant “large” in the Gross Science Camp sessions sponsored by the Stillwater Children’s Museum this summer, think again. “Gross” means “ewww – icky” – just the sort of thing that obviously appeals to many growing boys, and several girls, as well.

Participants in the Gross Science Camp sessions this week started by getting their hair painted a sickly green and having their pictures taken as mad scientists, and everything went downhill from there. Which is to say, everything was super cool.

There were plenty of comments as Ruth Cavins, executive director of the Children’s Museum, talked to the kids about head lice and worms and the dangers of using other people’s combs, picking your nose and not washing your hands after going to the toilet, but the expressions were the good kind – like, “Hey, we really get to talk about this yucky stuff!”

Cavins initially got some blood-thirsty responses when she told the kids she was going to “cut the group in half” for separate activities and asked whether she should cut the first child in half vertically or horizontally. Somewhat reluctantly, the kids decided maybe it would be better to keep each child intact and send half of their number outdoors to build a “volcano” and the other half to tables inside to create “dinosaur snot.”

When adult volunteers began to assemble the components for the active volcano, it became evident that some kids were a jump ahead of them. “You add vinegar and baking soda, and you get a chemical reaction that blows the top off,” said one budding young scientist before all the ingredients were even out of the box.

Indoors, as the other group mixed water, Elmer’s glue, borax and food coloring to make “dinosaur snot,” one kid told the others to “stir like you’ve never stirred before.” The resulting slimy goo looked kind of like brains, or worms, some suggested happily, while another said, “It looks like a tumor – those white things in your body.”

“We should sell these in stores and on the Internet – we’ll make zillions!” exclaimed a young entrepreneur.

To all appearances, the kids were having a great time, and the museum’s staff was pretty excited, too.

“We had a total of 166 kids for Princess Camp and Gross Science Camp this summer. That’s huge for the first year,” said VISTA volunteer Chasen Shaw, who originated the idea for the camps and is serving as a program designer and public relations representative for the museum. Camp participants came from Cushing, Bartlesville, Edmond and Norman, as well as the Stillwater area, he said, adding that “lots of grandparents are taking care of their grandchildren for part of the summer, and the camps are an excellent way to keep the kids occupied and happy.”

“People in Stillwater are craving something for kids to do,” Shaw said. Some parents have even suggested that the two-hour camps should be extended to all day, or even all week. That’s one of the ideas the staff will be looking at when they have read all the post-camp evaluations and made some decisions about what worked well and what didn’t.

One of the things they want to do next time is separate the children into more age groups and have more age-appropriate activities. Three-year-olds, Shaw said, tend to be more visual – they mainly want to look at interesting things – while 9-year-olds are much more interested in learning about how things work.

The camps were conceived in May as having a three-fold purpose: Providing interesting activities for the kids, raising money for the Children’s Museum fund and getting the word out – all of which were achieved, Shaw said.

While the camps cost $35 for a two-hour session, several volunteers, who prefer to remain anonymous, donated money for scholarships for kids who couldn’t afford to pay, Shaw said. During the academic year, the Museum Without Walls programs are offered without charge through the Stillwater Public Schools, he added.

For information about the Stillwater Children’s Museum , consult the museum’s Web site at www.stillwaterchildrensmuseum.org.

        

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