John Explaining the Broody Chicken

Gabe's Sound Wave Experiment

More Summer School: "Creature Care" Camp Workshop

This summer John was involved in a "Creature Care" workshop at his Church Camp. He learned about living things and discussed his experiences of a variety of living things. Then, with the teacher's guidance, he went on to learn that God created living things out of loving delight, to teach us selflessness, and how we need to treat living creatures with the same love and delight in imitation of God and the fulfillment of our "royal priesthood."

John then applied these ideas and beliefs to specific creatures: reptiles and amphibians. He learn about their characteristics--cold blooded, egg-laying, breathing underwater, and so on. The teacher demonstrated and then John practiced how to catch each creature in a caring way, learning why each method work. For instance, the frog's motion is based on movement, so if we block their eyes they won't jump, and snakes have elastic backbones so we can step on their tail without injuring them.

John learned a lot about animal behaviours, such as why we find them sunbathing, what they eat, how they reproduce, etc. He assembled habitats based on the animals' needs as living things: water, food, shelter, sun, and moisture. He learned how and what to feed them.

He learned about how to wash hands before and after handling, and why. Finally, he learned about invasive species; habitat destruction, realistic needs for human beings to co-exist and share space with animals.

All in all, it was a comprehensive study of animals that met many of the outcomes for Science this year.