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High School Students Dive into Natural Resources with Big Red Summer Camp

Jackson looks at how different chemicals move through soils as graduate student Chainarong Sakulthaew or "Tiger" looks on.

From June 13-18, 2010 the School of Natural Resources hosted its first ever Big Red Summer Camp. Faculty and staff from SNR developed a week-long itinerary exploring Nebraska's water resources, geology, mapping technology, species conservation, environmental restoration, climate and drought.

Three high school students participated in the camp, sponsored by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension and 4-H Youth Development. Over the course of the week, students stayed on campus and had the opportunity to explore possible careers within the field of natural resources.

Mary Bomberger Brown talks about Least Terns and habitat loss at a housing development near North Bend.

Many of the days were spent outdoors alongside SNR scientists – taking water samples from a stream bed, studying rock formations, or listening to the sounds of a piping plover egg ready to hatch. Students also participated in classroom discussions and laboratory experiments. At the end of the week, the group presented their own "Capstone" projects to friends and family.

Dr. Matt Joeckel leads a field trip to Jefferson County to study rock formations.

Dr. Matt Joeckel, Research Geologist with SNR and the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, led the students on a trip to Jefferson County to study rock formations.

"Anytime that I see kids having a good time learning on a pleasant day in June is a day when I am reminded of why I chose to be a geologist," said Joeckel.  "It's great to see young people making personal discoveries about the world around them."

Plans for a camp during June 13-17, 2011 are underway. If you have, questions please contact Sue Ellen Pegg at spegg2@unl.edu. To find out more about the Big Red Summer Academic Camps go to http://bigredcamps.unl.edu/

Deb Wood, Jackson Ellis, Emily Munsinger, Hunter Martin, Ester Dieker, and Tonya Bernadt tour the Maxwell Arboretum on East Campus. Organized by the National Drought Mitigation Center, the tour focused on drought-resistant plants. Ed and several graduate students talk about stream flow and velocity at Whitehead Wetland. Dr. Ed Harvey, professor of hydrogeology and associate director of the School of Natural Resources, shows the students a well during his segment of the camp, All Things Water. Students learn about radio telemetry with Dr. Larkin Powell, professor of conservation biology and animal ecology. Jackson, Emily and Hunter use radio telemetry to find their sample "animal" in a patch of prairie north of Hardin Hall. Jackson, Hunter and Emily take a look at some maps with Milda Vaitkus, Center for Advanced Land Management Information Services. Dr. Steve Comfort, a professor of environmental restoration science, talks about soil horizons from the inside of a soil pit. Students with Mark Christensen, a grad student in Environmental Restoration Science, learn about sampling groundwater. Students get an up-close look an an Ansel Ash, the only tree at the Maxwell Arboretum with its own Facebook page Hunter Martin learns about situ chemical oxidation in Dr. Comfort's lab -- a technique used to cleanup contaminated groundwater.