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Earth Camp for Grades 9-11
July 5-14, 2007
Earth Camp is a partnership between the University of Arizona College of Science and the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.
Conceived to honor the legacy of Columbia space shuttle astronaut Laurel Clark, the goal of Earth Camp is to educate and inspire youth to build leadership skills through experiential learning and conceptual understanding of earth processes. Earth Camp seeks to expand youth awareness of the interdependency of all living things, and create a sense of wonder related to the Sonoran Desert, ecosystems worldwide, as well as the "awe-inspiring" universal perspective. Earth Camp HS provides hands-on ecological research experience to help youth appreciate how science can be used to help people make better choices and decisions in a rapidly changing world.
Earth Camp 2007 will challenge youth entering grades 9-11 to explore global changes in climate, water and landscapes and how these changes impact sustainability issues. Students will work together on small-group research projects to compare and contrast the ecology and climate from mountains to low deserts, from the northern to the southern portions of the Sonoran Desert and from coastal to inland regions.
While hiking washes, combing beaches, gazing into tide pools and peering through microscopes, students will learn about the plants and animals that characterize the Sonoran desert, comparing and contrasting Arizona and Sonora, Mexico counterparts. In all of these areas they will learn how people are using, changing and protecting these landscapes.
Students will be introduced to the ecology of the Sonoran Desert at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum where they will have the chance to interact with live animals. They will explore the several distinct ecosystems from the low desert up to 9,000 feet at the top of Mount Lemmon and consider how current and future environmental change will affect them. A trip to San Carlos, Mexico on the Gulf of California will provide an opportunity for field work on the coast and will allow students to extend their comparisons to marine ecosystems. Campers will finish their studies of global change at the University of Arizona, visiting labs and talking with global change researchers.
During the entire ten days, campers will record photos, drawings, observations, data and reflections in field journals, which will then be transferred to individual web pages. They will camp in the desert and atop a mountain, stay in air-conditioned accommodations in San Carlos, and spend a couple of nights in University dormitories.
A Learning Celebration at the end of the camp gives the students an opportunity to share their discoveries with each other and with their families.
Participants are selected by an application process. Applications due postmarked March 15th, 2007; early applications accepted. Space limited to 20 youth. One credit from the University of Arizona and/or high school credit may be available to high school Earth Camp participants. For more information call Amy Orchard at 520-883-3083.
Important Forms
Other Institutions Involved
Biology Learning Center, UA College of Science
Center for Sonoran Desert Studies, ASDM
College of Science, University of Arizona (UA)
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, UA
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, UA
Redington Catering
Richard and Marjory Brown Family
Science and Mathematics Education Center (SAMEC)
Sonoran Sea Aquarium