STEM@Home: National Ocean Service for Kids

A post from one of our Summer 2020 Camp Counselors!…

Hey explorers, welcome back again to our STEM@home blog! I am Danielle Reiber, and I am one of the leaders for the virtual ExploreHope camps this year. I will be a senior majoring in Mathematics Elementary Education. This is my first summer working with the science camps and I have loved seeing the creativity and eagerness to learn in all of our campers!

Wow, hasn’t it been hot in Holland the past few weeks? I don’t know about you, but hot weather makes me want to swim. How lucky we are to have beautiful Lake Michigan so close to us! I hope you’ve been spending lots of time at the beach – or that you have a beach trip planned soon!

Living in Michigan, we’re lucky to have the Great Lakes be our beach destination, but the rest of the U.S. heads to the sea shore during a heat wave. So how perfect – let’s learn more about the ocean! The National Ocean Service website has wonderful learning resources and some pretty cool activities as well!

One of my favorite National Ocean Service activities was a boat building challenge! Get creative and build your own little – or not so little – boat! Think about what materials you can use, the density of the objects, what makes a boat float, how to make your boat move, and more! Once you have built your boat you could even try testing it in our own inland sea – Lake Michigan! (Then you can talk about the differences between an ocean and our Great Lakes!)

Some more SUPER cool activities are 360 degree virtual tours of the ocean! What’s the difference between the ocean and Lake Michigan? With these videos, you can compare them yourself. Plus, there’s so much more – tour shipwrecks, the shores of Hawaii and more right from your home!

The National Ocean Service for Kids has so many different resources, so once you try these out keep exploring, and don’t forget to take a swim! Have fun!

*Images all from National Ocean Service*

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