S ummer camp season has just wrapped up at Georgia College & State University. Students from across Georgia were here to participate in sports, band, academic and other summer activities.
 
For Science Camp this year, students had a mystery to solve. Students picked “mysteries” for the theme. Before it concluded, rising sixth through ninth graders investigated and forensically analyzed a mock crime scene.

They didn’t work alone. High schoolers in the university’s Young Scientist Academy and student volunteers in Georgia College’s Science Education Center supervised and supported pupils from local middle schools.

Christopher Townsend, a seventh grader at Georgia College’s Early College, is excited by marine biology and anatomy. He jumped at the chance to attend Science Camp.
 

“I feel grateful for this opportunity and to be mentored here,” Townsend said. “I just like science. It’s always been my dream, and this event is really memorable.”

His mentor, Ayesha Patel, is a rising junior in Early College and a veteran of the Young Scientist Academy.

“It’s an interesting thing, because I’ve never mentored before,” Patel said. “But teaching them is really fun and it’s making me more interested in chemistry, as well. It’s a good opportunity for both of us to learn.”

“I might want to go into forensics one day, or maybe one of the science campers may want to pursue chemistry just because of what we’re learning,” she said.

Georgia College Science Education Center volunteers organized the event. They supervised and assisted both groups of students, as well.
 

“We fake-murdered people at the crime scene, flung fake blood everywhere, set up all the evidence and then arranged the evidence so people could be rolled out one-by-one to each station,’ said rising Georgia College senior and chemistry major, Cole Smith.
 
“We’re always doing stuff like this,” he said. “The Science Education Center does a lot of outreach, spreading the love of science. We’re always running around volunteering with Dr. Catrena Lisse.”

Academically-focused Science Camp is the collaborative effort of Academic Outreach and the Science Education Center at Georgia College. Last week concluded the two-week camp, making 2023 their 20th year engaging local students excited by the subject.

“It’s important to give everybody the opportunity to get hands-on science, because they may or may not have those opportunities in the classroom,” said Ruth Eilers, director of Academic Outreach. 
“They’re already curious, and any opportunity to foster that and keep it going—get that analytical mind working on those critical thinking skills regardless of what they end up doing—is super important.”