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Day Camp has archaeology adventure
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Neighbors | Amanda Tonoli.Children at Adventure Day Camp, on July 11, got to participate in an archaeological dig with students from Youngstown State University.
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Neighbors | Amanda Tonoli.On July 11, students from Youngstown State University teamed up with those attending Adventure Day Camp at the Boardman Park to get their hands dirty and dig like archaeologists.
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Neighbors | Amanda Tonoli.Adam Tarbit and Stephen Firmstone had fun digging for "lost artifacts" at the Boardman Park on July 10.
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Neighbors | Amanda Tonoli.Thomas Delvaux (far right), Youngstown State University professor, taught students how to properly sift the sand they were digging in to find hidden treasures and artifacts.
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Neighbors | Amanda Tonoli.Olivia Johnson (back right), president of Youngstown State University's Anthropology Colloquium, taught students at Adventure Camp at the Boardman Park about digging like an archaeologist on July 10.
By amanda tonoli
On July 10, Adventure Day Camp in Boardman Park had some special visitors from Youngstown State University. For the second year, students from the departments of archeology and anthropology came to teach children of the camp about what they do and how they do it. Children performed an archaeological dig, finding artifacts in the sand of the volleyball court.
Olivia Johnson, president of the Anthropology Colloquium, said she thinks this event is a great learning experience for the children in Adventure Day Camp.
“I think that it’s awesome to show kids how we know what we know about history,” Johnson said. “There are a lot of things in archaeology that have been found that made a lot of other discoveries possible.”
Tom Delvaux, YSU professor, said he liked that the event was all about the students — both those from YSU and the children in Adventure Day Camp.
Many of the activities provided were interactive.
“Nearly everything we have they are allowed to hold in their hands and look at,” Delvaux said. “It’s actually hands-on.”
Karen McCallum, recreation director of Boardman Township Park, said she appreciated the fact that volunteers from YSU were taking the time to do these activities that let the children actually do things.
“What’s awesome is the YSU students have been out here for the last three days doing various activities and hands-on activities,” McCallum said. “It’s one of the key ways the kids learn – through hands-on learning.”
Johnson said she the comprehension that comes with exploring hands-on techniques employed by activities like the dig.
“It’s nice to see kids understand how we go through these processes,” Johnson said.
Delvaux said some of the children were really interested in the entire process and what the YSU students had to say.
“The kids are having a blast with this and they are learning about history and the science,” McCallum said. “It’s not just one thing that they have to learn.”
Jessica Mriso, the science instructor for Adventure Day Camp, said this interest the children in Adventure Day Camp had in their guest visitors really helped programs like this run smoothly.
“They are getting to do a bunch of different stuff that they probably don’t get to do in school,” Mriso said. “They get to do all the different experiments that you hear about that sound so cool that you don’t necessarily get to be able to do.”
Mriso admired the comprehension present in the children as they participated in various activities.
“It’s really fun to watch their faces as they see something new,” Mriso said.
Volunteers Tyrese Rushton and Brandon Cappelli agreed, saying they both enjoyed seeing the children have fun with archaeology.
This event was quite popular the year before, so popular that there were several people inquiring about the return of it.
“People were asking what week the archeologists would be here,” Delvaux said.
McCallum said she is very grateful for YSU being able to come out and work with the children and instructors for Adventure Day Camp.