Health Careers

"Body-ology" Summer Science Camp

"Body-ology", a week long summer science camp, was a joint venture of Boys and Girls Club of Western Lane County and Lane Community College Florence Center held from July 25-29, 2011 at the Lane Community College Science Lab.  The goals of the camp were to provide an active hands-on and age appropriate learning environment to enable middle school students to practice scientific exploration and achieve basic understanding of five major human body systems; inspire middle school students through fun science activities to consider a career in science or health care; and introduce middle school students and their parents to educational resources and opportunities at Lane Community College and Boys and Girls Club of Western Lane County.

Each half day session covered one of five major body organ systems: guts, muscles and skeleton, brain, eyes and ears, which incorporated Area Health Education Center's In-A-Box curriculum. Each session included a warm up video with Bill Nye, the Science Guy, a fifteen minute "Meet the Professional" segment, and four stations of hands on activities based on the daily topic. All topics were aligned with Oregon Department of Education middle school science curriculum. The "In-a-box" curriculum was produced by the Oregon Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) and professionals at the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) with funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Each day included a movement segment such as dance or juggling as well as healthy snacks and beverages.

Laura Smith, MS Biology and Coordinator of the "Science Is Elementary" program for Siuslaw Schools, was the Camp Curriculum Coordinator and Lead Instructor. Mary Jeanne Kuhar, MD, Dean of LCC Florence, was the Camp Administrative Coordinator, and Melissa Wilcox, Teen Program Coordinator at Boys and Girls Club, coordinated transportation, registration and volunteer screening.

The camp was given financial support by Peace Health Siuslaw Region, Boys and Girls Club of Western Lane County, and Lane Community College Perkins program. Several community individuals donated scholarships to cover student enrollment fees and others volunteered their time each afternoon.

Sixteen students enrolled in the camp and 13 students completed the weeklong camp. There were 8 boys and 5 girls.  Twelve students were from the Siuslaw School District and one student, visiting his grandmother who lives in Florence, was from the Tualatin School District.

Students filled out a "Pre-box" survey form on the second day. They then filled out a "Post-box" survey form on the final day. Additionally, students were asked at the end of the week which activities they preferred and for suggestions for any future camps. Overall, students (and their parents or grandparents) were quite enthusiastic about the week-long camp. They particularly enjoyed the hands on projects and dissection of the sheep brain and cow eye. They also liked the daily movement activities (especially dancing) and snacks (brain berries aka blueberries were a favorite.) On the post camp survey forms, all students indicated a high level of importance in science and technology solving health care problems as well as the importance of team work. There also seemed to be a slight increase in the awareness of a number of different types of health care professionals involved in the health care team.