We are teaching community members accurate information about mosquitoes.
Participants in our Mosquitoes & Me Summer Camp learn about mosquitoes, engage in real scientific research, and share what they learn with their neighbors through writing, art, and movement.
The first Mosquitoes & Me summer camp was held in July, 2016. Iowa State University School of Education professor, Katherine Richardson Bruna, and Lyric Bartholomay, an entomology professor from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, direct the two-week camp that is full of ambitious science discovery for 5th-7th graders.
During the first week of the camp, students were put to work asking and attempting to answer the big questions of how and why mosquitoes buzz and bite. In the process, they learned about a mosquito’s anatomy and life cycle. They started week two with a canoe trip during which they gathered water samples to examine for mosquito larvae. They also took water samples from around their homes.
Based on their mosquito knowledge, they designed, built, tested, and revised their own mosquito traps and compared their yields to those of real traps used by the Centers for Disease Control. Some students’ traps beat or outdid the CDC traps!
At the camp’s conclusion, students reexamined their attitudes about mosquitoes, learned about the role that mosquitoes play in the larger ecosystem, and planned for mosquito prevention in their own backyards. They had some great ideas to reduce the mosquito population! They shared what they learned during a Family Celebration on the last day of camp.
In addition to the ISU 4U Promise students, a Moulton teacher, an ISU student teacher supervisor, five ISU elementary education majors, a public health graduate student, and educators from Children and Family Urban Movement also took part in the camp.
The local press even came to visit the camp. Check out their coverage.
