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Summer science

By Staff | Jul 25, 2018

McKenzie Walker works on her poster about sea snails.

Leah Fedorovich, Gabrielle Orlandini, and Kayla Walker learned that shells play an important role in both biological processes and human culture.

Yoshe Garay and Gemma Traficante learned than the Calusa Indians lived on Estero Island for more than 100 years.

Science education was combined with fun this week at the Mound House.

The Mound House held its first camp last week, Calusa Kids Summer Camp, led by Glen Beitmen of Super Science and Amazing Art, an Educational Entertainment Company.

The 12 kids enrolled in camp learned about the local environment and its cultural history through kayak adventures, Calusa tool making, and games. But they also learned about scientific experimentation and research, such as collecting data on the beach and turning the Mound House’s shadow into a sundial.

Leah Fedorovich, Gabrielle Orlandini, and Kayla Walker collected shells to illustrate their presentation poster.

The week culminated in teams of students researching a topic and making a presentation board to speak to their audience about the research and information they had learned.

Parents came Friday to listen to the presentations, but the camp had a few special guests, too. Ceel Spuhler, Becky Werner and Barbara Hill, all members of the Mound House’s town advisory board, also came to see what they had learned.

Both Spuhler and Werner were excited to see the camp using the local environment to teach and educate.

“They used the beach, the Mound House… what was here,” Werner said. “It will make these kids more curious about the environment.”

Beitmen said after showing the kids how to research a topic both in the field and online, he let them focus on whatever topic they were interested in exploring.

Eddie Fedorovich and Easton Belfry get a little help with research from Glen Beitmen of Super Science and Amazing Art, an Educational Entertainment Company.

“I wanted to see what they came up with,” he said. “They’re learning new stuff and love showing it.”

Mound House Director Alison Giesen hopes it’s the first of many years of summer camps to come; this year it was only one week, but she hopes to expand the offering next year.

Having a science-based camp ties into a piece of the Mound House’s history: two scientists bought the Mound House in 1947 with dreams of turning it into a research center.

Robert and Mildred James bought the Mound House and 26 acres of land from the Ostego Bay Company. Robert was a physician and Mildred a biochemist, so the couple founded a non-profit called the James Foundation to establish the Shell Mound Experiment Station. They planned to open up lodging for 50 scientists and their families as well as college students, and turned the kitchen of the house into a laboratory. Some of their goals included using seaweed to treat arthritis and using saw palmetto roots to make a kind of plastic veneer. Robert dies in 1950 from a heart attack, and Mildred sold the property to its next historical owners, William and Florence Long.

“It was a fantastic week. It was great to see it all come together with Mr. Glenn, he’s an exceptional educator,” Giesen said. “We found a unique niche for summer camp, and we’re going to explore it.”

Yoshe Garay and Gemma Traficante made a PowerPoint and a poster to talk about the Calusa Indians and the shell mound.

Beitman said the use of both the Mound House and the Newton Beach Park facility gave two great locations for student learning.

Many of the kids said their favorite parts of camp were kayaking, and learning about different species on the beach.

Easton Belfry came up with a little-known piece of information about an extinct species for his research project on sharks, which he completed with Eddie Fedorovich.

“The megladon had a heartbreak and disappeared,” Easton said.

Will Travis made a fun arts and crafts project for his audience to try: making snails with marbles and foam putty.