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Kids Stay Active At Summer Science Camp
Summer camp
The youngsters enjoyed creating Starburst Slime that was also edible. PHOTO CONTRIBUTED

The chatter of young voices and a Teen Center filled with energy from boys and girls between the ages of six and nine equaled plenty of excitement during a weeklong Summer Fun and Science Camp held from June 25 to 29.

There were 32 campers from Riverbank, Oakdale and Modesto that participated in a variety of activities and experiments each day along with cooling off in the Community Pool in the afternoons after lunch during the camp. With six City of Riverbank Parks and Recreation Leaders including Stephanie Argumedo, Vanessa Argumedo, Valorie Franco, and Jose Lopez on hand to monitor and administer a collection of experiments, the campers were entertained each day.

“Having a Junior Recreation Leader is a new program that we are doing this year,” stated Stephanie. “It is volunteers that are in high school or middle school and they come and help us out and do exactly what we are doing just to get a taste of what it is to be a recreational leader.”

On Monday, June 25 staff gave the kids an introduction and played a name game to get to know each other. They were given the rules and expectations as well a lab book where they could document their projects listing the process, procedures, and ingredients. The purpose of the lab book was to have them take the book home to share with their families what they did during camp and perhaps engage in some experiments at home.

The following day campers competed in the Egg Drop challenge where they used certain supplies to protect the egg and then would toss it in the air to see if it survived the eventual landing on the ground. The eggs that cracked were out. Recreation Leader Miss Vanessa’s team was victorious in that activity, keeping the egg unscathed even after being tossed several times.

Using a combination of flour, glitter and baby oil, the campers made Moon Sand and they also melted crayons with a hair dryer to see how the wax dissolved.

Between making bath bombs, magic milk, glow in the dark eggs, Starburst slime that was edible, and making ice cream, there was a lot to do. The daily trip to the nearby Community Pool after lunch was a favorite part of camp for many of the youngsters.

The final day of camp, the staff made the group tie dye T-shirts using their camp shirts and saved an explosive experiment to leave a lasting impression. The Soda Explosion, which included two-liter bottles of soda and a few rolls of Mentos, was all the rage. Since they had the pool to themselves this past Friday, the campers were able to bring pool accessories.

“I think the soda explosion was really cool,” added Stephanie. “They all liked that. We had a lot of new kids this year that hadn’t seen that before so that was pretty cool for them to experience that. Everything this year went really smooth.”

This week Cheerleading Camp is underway and the following week is Outdoor Adventure Camp along with the first Family Fun Night on Wednesday, July 11.