{"id":56659,"date":"2020-10-15T10:16:15","date_gmt":"2020-10-15T15:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=56659"},"modified":"2020-10-15T11:51:17","modified_gmt":"2020-10-15T16:51:17","slug":"fhsu-receives-overwhelmingly-positive-responses-to-sternberg-museums-virtual-camps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=56659","title":{"rendered":"FHSU receives overwhelmingly positive responses to Sternberg Museum\u2019s virtual camps"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVID-19 forced the cancelation of all summer camps at Fort Hays State University in 2020. Students K-12 and staff alike were disappointed at the thought of not being able to participate in the instructional science camps hosted by FHSU\u2019s Sternberg Museum of Natural History.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nDavid Levering, camps director at Sternberg, and his staff devised a way to\nstill convert and not cancel the Sternberg camps by moving them to an online\nformat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA\nlot of the credit goes to our instructional staff,\u201d Levering said. \u201cThey were\nable and willing to make a quick transition to online camps. They were so\npositive about tackling this challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Switching\nto an online format not only kept alive the summer camp experience for a\nseventh consecutive year, but it also gave elementary school children from\nother parts of the country the chance to participate. While there are normally\novernight camp opportunities for high school and middle school students, all\nthe elementary school camps were local day camps. This year, the list of\ncampers included elementary students from coast to coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An overwhelmingly positive response resulted in\na record 92 students signing up for 113 different slots for students elementary\nthrough high school age. Fifty-one high school students were joined by 33\nmiddle schoolers and 29 elementary school students in the inaugural online\ncamps. A total of 23 states and three foreign countries were represented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Levering\nexpects a lot more returnees for the 2021 camps, for which plans are well\nunderway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA\nlot of parents, especially those of elementary school students,\u201d he said,\n\u201casked us to retain the virtual camps.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\neach virtual camp roster was set, Levering and his staff assembled and mailed a\nkit full of supplies to the students to facilitate participation in their\nparticular camp. Just as in the in-person camps, the virtual camps included a\nvariety of subjects, ranging from classes on discovering dinosaurs at all three\nage levels to paleontology technical illustration for high school students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Levering\nsaid he knew the staff had put together programs to deliver a quality product,\nbut he was \u201cpleasantly surprised with the depth of the positive feedback from\nthe parents.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Response\nto surveys sent out after the camps were encouraging for Sternberg camps staff.\nOne parent of an elementary school child from the West Coast noted that the\ninstructors were patient and encouraging and that their child \u201cfelt heard and\ngot his many questions answered.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others\nat the middle school and high school levels told how they appreciated being\nable to connect with different professors and scientists from all over the\nworld, those who Sternberg instructors brought on as guest speakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe\nmaterials shipped to the students were amazing,\u201d shared a parent of a high\nschool student in the Rocks of Fire camp. \u201cWe weren\u2019t sure what to expect\nonline, but our son was engaged and enjoyed the camp immensely. He would have\nloved to have been there in person, but I truly feel this was even an\nincredible experience for him online.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One\nmiddle school camper gave the Dinosaur Discoveries camp a 15-star rating out of\n10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Levering\nknows that part of the reason for the huge response was because a lot of other\nprograms around the country were canceled, and parents were looking for ways to\nkeep their children engaged over the summer. But he also said there were a lot\nof returnees from years past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nonline programs will remain a component of the camps from now on, even when the\nface-to-face camps return. The current plan is to double the total number of\nvirtual camps offered to 30 next summer. Information for registration for the\n2021 camps will be available around Christmastime on the Sternberg website at http:\/\/sternberg.fhsu.edu\/active-learning\/camps\/<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS COVID-19 forced the cancelation of all summer camps at Fort Hays State University in 2020. Students K-12 and staff alike were disappointed… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11722],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-releases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56659"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56668,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56659\/revisions\/56668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}