Science, life lessons at Cub Scout Day Camp

MOSES LAKE — It turns out there are some rocks that look really cool when they’re sprayed with water. But the sun’s rays won’t make the water evaporate right away, even with a magnifying glass. Hey. look at that - science, right there, and it’s fun. Sometimes science tastes good, too. Cub Scouts at the annual Columbia Basin District Day Camp used graham crackers and pudding to mimic the layers of the earth - smashed up graham crackers for rocks and dirt, pudding for the molten lava layers. The Cub Scouts started to giggle over the idea they were eating the earth. Columbia Basin District Day Camp is designed to teach kids about science, and about the values of scouting. Each scientific experiment and activity came with a demonstration of ideas in the Cub Scout creed.

“You’re learning it through an activity,” said Joe Bradford, leader of Cub Scout Pack No. 63 in Ephrata. The Home Depot partnered with the Boy Scout Council in Grant County, and brought boards, nails and employees to help the Cub Scouts make a bird hotel. The scouts made and painted clay models of the planets, demonstrated the proper way to build a fire, practiced tying knots and built balsa wood models of dinosaurs. They dissected owl pellets to see what was in them. They looked at rocks, and even when it was time to move to the next station, a couple of kids kept spraying water on the rocks, marveling at how they changed color, and using a magnifying glass to focus the sun’s rays and see if that assisted evaporation. There was a fire science class, a nature hike across the Grant County Fairgrounds, some races and games. And there was an archery course, and the BB guns. “They always love the BB guns and archery,” Bradford said.

It’s fun to learn marksmanship, and it’s the perfect station to learn about responsibility, he said. In fact, leaders are required to go through training before they can supervise. Cub Scouts got five arrows each, and had varying degrees of degrees of success. As they got ready to pick up their arrows, one Cub Scout totaled his results. “I got three in the blue (ring on the target) one in the red (ring) and one in the grass,” he said. “Day camp has been going on for a very, very long time,” Bradford said. Day camp 2016 covered two days, Friday and Saturday, and had 150 kids registered.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.