Text Size:
CAMPS 2012
Click Here for Spring Camp 2012 Information
Spring Camp 2012 Application Form
BUEI’s educational camps are hands-on, involving labs, experiments, specimens, videos, interactive computer activities, scavenger hunts, arts and crafts, play-acting and competitions.
Conducted in the Sea Below Classrooms, Exhibits, Link Wet Lab, and Lobbies, the camps are mainly science in nature, but the activities incorporate other disciplines and emphasize the role Bermuda plays in these areas where possible. The programmes integrate literacy and numeracy, and are designed to inform, motivate and excite children. Camps are limited to ages 7-13 and conducted from 9am to 3pm with after camp supervision available until 5pm if needed.
Dabble in Seashells A 2-day educational camp explores the world of mollusks. Using the Jack Lightbourn Shell Room and hands-on specimens, students learn the major classes of mollusks, how to use shell keys in identifying specimens, shell conservation, discovering interesting characteristics, such as shells that are edible, venomous, used in making dye, used in jewelry, protected in Bermuda, exotic and invasive, etc. What are the biggest shells in the world? What are the different types of pearls and how do they form? What are the many different, surprising ways humans have used shells through the ages and up to modern day? Students discover all the answers, as well as have the opportunity to dissect a clam, do a deep water pteropod shell lab and assimilate a mini-microshell collection.
Dabble in the Deep I Topics in this five-day educational camp include bioluminescence, denizens of the deep, Bermuda fluorescence, importance of the Sargasso Sea, giant squid and deep-sea technology via Cable and Wireless/Global Marine. Activities include squid dissection, bioluminescence experiments, constructing squid bean babies and the utilization of interactive computer programmes and websites involving submersibles and remotely operated vehicles (ROV’s).
Dabble in Sharks “Sharks”, a word that will make you scramble out of the water when at the beach, is the focus of this educational camp which will cover everything one needs to know about sharks from a shark dissection, shark attack behavior, sharks past and present, current shark research to shark conservation and the importance of the Sargasso Sea to some sharks’ reproduction. It will entail an in depth dissection, identifying various prehistoric shark teeth, painting large 3.5 inch plaster Carcharodon megalodon teeth, and make a take-home 6-gilled shark “bean” baby.
Dabble in Whales This educational camp explores the world’s largest mammals and immerses campers into the whales’ relationship to mankind and the present efforts to conserve them. Hands-on and interactive, this camp involves tracking satellite tagged whales, identifying the different types of whales and their behaviors, and learning the history of whaling of the past, present and in Bermuda. From carving scrimshaw to making sailor’s valentines, identifying whale sounds to being updated on the current whale studies conducted in Bermuda, campers become whale aficionados.
Dabble in Dissection Camp A five-day educational camp introducing six very different unique invertebrate creatures: sponge, Hydra, segmented worm, clam, sea star, and crayfish.Campers learn how special and well adapted these creatures are to their environment and the important role they play in the ocean. As they get “up close and personal” to each specimen they are taught safe and proper lab skills utilizing microscopes and dissecting tools. An overview is given of each organism’s phyla inclusive of alerting the campers of the related dangerous or venomous members. Due to the nature of this camp, students must be 9-13 years old.
Dabble in Bermuda This educational camp focuses on the beautiful waters and their relationship to a unique, special, island, BERMUDA! Utilizing hands-on activities and videos, Campers learn about Bermuda’s violent birth, its past as told by recently found ancient submerged cedar forests, marine fossils and where Bermuda might be going in its geological future. From a shipwreck caused inhabitation, what was maritime Bermuda like in the 17th century? What hardships did the first settlers endure? What were some of the most famous and valuable shipwreck finds and what did they do for Bermudians? Campers conduct shipwreck simulations and paint their own Teddy Tucker Cross replica.Is Bermuda’s sand all pink? What lies among its grains? Each participant receives their own micro-paleontological slide, collects micro-critters and makes their own sand collections. Comparisons are made as to what once lived in Bermuda’s waters to what lives here now. From whales, sharks, seashells, flotsam and jetsam, Sargasso Sea and the Bermuda Triangle, Campers learn about Bermuda’s mysteries, its beaches and surrounding ocean!
Dabble in Disaster Natural disasters can occur at any time, any where. This eye opening five-day educational camp consists of marine-related disasters involving geological forces such as volcanoes, earthquakes, underwater avalanches, meteor impacts, earth’s magnetic reversals as well as meteorological events such as hurricanes, tornadoes/waterspouts, global warming, sea level rise and the snowball phenomena. Campers learn various past natural disasters through videos, computers, meteorological and geological instruments as well as hands-on activities, including those affecting Bermuda and how to predict, prepare and act where possible.
Dabble in Prehistoric Seas This five-day educational camp starts at the birth /creation of earth over 4 billion years ago. Traveling through simulated time, campers get up close and personal with the variety of life in the savage prehistoric seas ranging from the Cambrian to the Quaternary periods of the geological time scale. Through videos, computers, fossil labs, and other unique hands-on activities, campers learn about the dominant inhabitants of each major period, what survived and what caused major extinctions, and where Bermuda fit into the scheme of the prehistoric seas. Campers will be able to make molds/casts of some of the marine fossils of the past such as mosasaur teeth, ammonites, and trilobites, as well as excavate, analyze and interpret real fossil remains like paleontologists.
Dabble in Pirates This two or three day educational hands-on camp dwells in the realm of piracy as it deals with the different types of pirates, the most famous ones, and the pirates that were involved with Bermuda’s early history. From the past days of the Spanish Main and the Barbary Coast to today’s pirate havens of the world, campers have fun as they are immersed in the pirate’s code of conduct, shipboard life, jolly rogers, gold doubloons, and pieces of eight. Among the many camp activities are Divide the Booty and How Did the Pirate Ship Sink? where campers work with real artefacts and treasures as well as play an authentic pirate game of chance. The camp culminates with the campers having an opportunity to compete as they dress as their favourite swashbuckler.
Dabble in the Extremes: Frozen Seas From the coldest, driest environment on earth, Antarctica, to the North Pole, the Arctic, this educational camp, immerses the campers in their cold icy waters and on to icebergs and ice floes. What are the extreme conditions of both of these environments and what is the same and different marine life of both habitats? How do various marine life adapt to the extreme cold? Historically, which men and which expeditions explored and survived these extreme environments? What were the dangers and what survival methods were used and were successful and what did their expeditions contribute? Could Bermuda ever get as extremely cold? Campers find out what recent future predictions suggest.
Dabble in the Extremes: The Abyss This new camp delves in the deep, dark, cold, highly pressurized, remote areas of the ocean of which only 5% has been explored. Campers experiment with the principles of deep water oceanography, discover state of the art methods of deepwater exploration, and observe recently discovered unusual, new abyssal life forms including ones found recently off Bermuda Unique communities are revealed involving extinct seamounts, cold seeps, hydrothermal vents, whale falls and newly explored areas such as the Celebes Seas. Along with abyssal exploration come discoveries of the skeletons of lost ships and the secrets they left behind. From mapping ocean bottoms and locating wrecks, building vent boxes, to deciphering the last morse code sent by the RMS Titanic, the mysteries surrounding sunken ships including the Marie Celeste, local shipwreck the Caraquet and others are revealed.