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Camps 2008
Waiver of Liability for all BUEI Camps
BUEI’s educational Explorer’s Camp enrollment is on a first come first served basis. BUEI members are given preference but it is suggested that you call us at 297-7296 or 297-7323 to receive an application form or to be wait-listed as soon as possible. Completed application and payment in full must be submitted in order to secure the applicant's place in the educational camp selected below. 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. They are as follows:
Dabble in the Deep I Topics in this five-day educational camp include bioluminescence, denizens of the deep, Bermuda fluorescence, 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 the Deep II “Sharks”, a word that will make you scramble out of the water when at the beach, is the focus of this five-day 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. It will entail an in depth dissection, identifying various prehistoric shark teeth, painting large 3.5 inch Carcharodon megalodon teeth, and constructing a take-home 6-gilled shark “bean” baby.
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. Explorers 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 Camp This five-day educational camp focuses on the beautiful waters and their relationship to a unique, special, island, BERMUDA! Utilizing hands-on activities and videos, Explorers 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? Explorers conduct a shipwreck simulation and paint their own Teddy Tucker Cross mold replica. Is Bermuda’s sand all pink? What lies among its grains? Explorers receive their own micro-paleontological slide, collect their own micro-critters and make their own sand collections. Comparisons are made as to which creatures once lived in Bermuda’s waters to which creatures live here now. From whales, sharks, seashells, flotsam and jetsam, Explorers learn about the mysteries of Bermuda, its beaches and surrounding ocean!
Dabble in Disaster Natural disasters can occur at any time, any where. This eye opening five-day educational Explorer’s 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/water spouts, global warming, sea level rise and the “snowball earth” phenomena. Explorers 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 5 day educational Explorer’s Camp “starts” at the birth /creation of earth over 4 and ½ 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. Explorers will be able to make molds/casts of some of the “key” 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 new two-day educational hands-on Explorer’s 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, camp explorers 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 explorers work with real artefacts and treasures as well as play an authentic pirate game of chance. The camp culminates with the explorer’s 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 Explorer's 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.
Camp enrollment is on a first come first served basis. BUEI members are given preference but it is suggested that you call us at 297-7296 or 297-7323 to receive an application form or to be wait-listed as soon as possible. Completed application and payment in full must be submitted in order to secure the applicant's place in the educational camp selected below.