Camp Contact Information

For more information regarding Science Camp, Oak Lake Field station and South Dakota Stae University follow these links:

• Middle School Science Camp
• Oak Lake Field Station
• Camp Coordinator, Kendra Hill
• South Dakota State University

Day 5

Well today was our last full day. We checked the traps that we set last night and unfortunately got nothing - bummer! We dissected owl pellets which was pretty cool. After lunch we went to SDSU to visit the Art Museum and the Ag Heritage Museum. We then got ice cream at the dairy bar. When we got back to camp we went swimming in the lake - finally! After supper we finished our websites, plant collections and insect collections. Tomorrow we head home - it has been a great week!

Day Four

We woke up this morning to the delicious smell of cold cereal and burnt toast. After we were ready, we headed down to the classroom to learn how to spot and recognize different kinds of birds and headed out to find them. We saw several different species including barn swallows, American Goldfinches, Tree Swallows, Canadian Geese, Pelicans, Herring Gulls, House Wrens, Cormorants, and Turkey Vultures. Once we had returned, we had a lunch of cold sandwiches for the third day running!!! when we had finished our pitiful lunch, we went back to the class room as Nels explained what a GPS was, how to use it, and what a GIS was. Then we headed out into the field to use them and take some environmental measurements, such as temperature, humidity, wind speed, and light. Half of us went into wooded areas, while the others went into the Tall Grass Prairie. When we got back, Nels showed us how to up load this information into a GIS, or Geographical Information System. During free time we hung around reading or labeling the insects we had caught yesterday. Dinner arrived at 6:00 and we had a delicious supper of spaghetti, breadsticks, and fruit salad. Once Troy arrived, he showed us how to use and set small box traps. Then we realized the last person to use them was too lazy to clean them out, so we had to get soaked while cleaning out the peanut butter and bird seed. After they were clean, we set some some out in the woods, and some in the prairie. When they were all set, we returned to the classroom and finished labeling our insect collections. Then we started placing them in our collector's boxes. End of day four.

Day Three:
We looked for bugs to start our bug collection today. We went into the prairie and woods with Paul Johnson. We got a lot of different kinds of insects including dragonflies and butterflies. We put them in jars with chemicals that killed them. Then we came back and pinned them. We are going to label them. Then Gary Larson came and showed us prairie and woodland plants. We collected them and pressed them for later. Then Jerry Krueger and Kali came and we did orienteering. It was confusing because some of the posts were in different spots than the map said they were. We went through grass that was taller than us once! At the end of orienteering, the kids all ended up dumping their water bottles on each other! Then we took showers and came back to the classroom to finish pinning and labeling our bugs. When we are done, we will get root beer floats!

Day Two

We just finished our second day here at Oak Lake Science Camp. We had Dr. Dennis Todey come and talk to us about weather, climate and clouds. We took and recorded measurements in our field notebooks recording temperature, wind speed, pressure, dew point with his Kestrels. After a lunch of turkey or ham sandwiches, we headed out on a boat on Oak Lake to catch some aquatic insects with Nels, the old camp director. We found bloodworms, damsel fly larvae, baby dragonflies, snails, and water scorpions. Our fourth camper arrived today with her father, Dr. Dennis Todey. We are excited to have her with us for the remainder of the week. End of Day 2.

Day One

We all met each other, all four of us. We are two sets of brothers and sisters. The only work we really did was make a plant press that we will continue to use throughout the week. We are anxiously awaiting our fourth camper to join us in the festivities. We had a great dinner of pork sandwiches, tater tots, and brownies. End of Day One.

Science Camp: Day One

Sarah:
We got here around 4:30. Camp didn't start until 6:00, so we were pretty early. Douglas got here around 5:45. His sister is coming tomorrow because she originally wasn't going to come. We had Bar-B-Qs, tater tots, and brownies for supper with lemonade or milk to drink. After that we made a plant press that we will use later to press our plant collection. I did terrible on it. My wood was cursed! It kept splitting and the nails kept getting bent. I must have been sitting near an ant hole with red ants because they kept crawling on my legs and one bit me on the ankle! It didn't hurt real bad, but it took a little while to get it off.