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Warner Camp Gets Kids Investigating Beach Woes
 A
new camp experience challenged Rochester middle-school
students to solve a problem that water-quality specialists
face-and smell!-every summer: Why is Charlotte Beach
closed again, and what can we do about it?
The Get Real! Environmental Action Camp is the brainchild
of April Luehmann, assistant professor. In Luehmann's
Integrating Science and Technology course, graduate
students enrich their science knowledge, try new teaching
techniques, and get immediate feedback by working directly
with middle-school youngsters.
The beach at Lake Ontario was this summer's target
for both older and younger students. Assigned groups
posed and investigated a question dealing with the larger
issue of why Charlotte Beach is sometimes unfit for
swimming. The Warner students have been through the
exercise once, wearing chest-high waders and using traditional
and high-tech methods to gather and test water specimens.
In August, they taught a free, half-day science camp
to students entering grades seven through nine this
fall.
"City students designed their own experiments,
used technology, learned about water quality, and discovered
how science is important in everyday life," says
Luehmann. They also heard about the social and economic
impact that the closing of a public beach can have on
a community.
For a week in early August, the group of about 25 were
joined by Dina Markowitz, a molecular biologist and
course co-instructor, who is assistant professor of
environmental medicine and director of the Life Sciences
Learning Center at the University of Rochester Medical
Center. At the camp's final session, city students presented
data to guests and community leaders about how to minimize
the closing of the beach and what they can do as citizens
to alleviate pollution.
When day camp was over, Warner students had a final
week of class to evaluate the science unit and reflect
on how to improve it.
"This engagement of students in authentic science
investigations is a challenging and powerful teaching
strategy advocated by the latest calls for reform in
science education," says Luehmann. Making youngsters
a critical part of that curriculum development is equally
important, but often neglected.
In her course, Luehmann has seen many examples of quality
scientific research from her graduate students along
with "much thinking about how this experience can
be made meaningful to middle-school students and what
is the value of available technologies."
Camp activities and presentations can be seen on the
Warner School Web site at www.rochester.edu/warner/getreal/.
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