Eco Camp

During the month of July the Discovery Bay Marine Lab puts on a annual Eco-Camp. It is 3-4 weeks (depending on if they get enough students for the 16-18 group) of 1 week segments starting with the 7-9 age range. The camp has a marine and coastal focus but the activities span the sciences. Preparing for the camp was a 12 to 14 hour a day job for the 2 weeks before the camp began. I worked with our Chief Scintific Officer, Camilo Trench, with the assistance of our three interns to select and/or design the activities for the camp. Trench joined the lab around the same time that I did so it was the first Eco camp for the both of us. We had a binder of activity sheets and ideas from years past which was a good start, but we ended up creating many activities of our own.

The camp itself made for a very intense month. To give my former coworkers an idea of how busy, it was like Marine Quest x 10. Most days we arrived early to prepare for the day, spent the day coordinating activities, giving powerpoint lectures, teaching and guiding experiments, assisting with snorkeling and at the end of the day we started our preparations for the next. The first, and youngest, group was probably the best. They were the most well behaved and engaging of all the groups. 

                                           Over all it was an exhausting month but a lot of fun. On top of the intense month of eco-camp I also moved off of the lab property to Farmtown, a small town about three miles South of the lab up in the hills. Although relying on public transport is a pain, cause there is no schedule and you never know when they will get there, Farmtown was a great change climate wise as it was several degrees cooler then in the dorms at the lab. It is also noce to have a yard to for plants and I am also participating in a couple of community organizations which do a lot of great work in the community.