It’s not often that kids get to travel back in time and take part in an archaeological dig, but that’s exactly what’s happening at a local summer camp.
The Burnaby Village Museum offers nine weeks of summer camps for kids that include exploring nature, learning more about the past, and STEM-based activities.
Now, the kids have the chance to dig up some history themselves, according to Kate Procopio, the camp coordinator.
“This year we have archaeology week, where they get to do a little excavation on the museum property,” said Procopio, who has a background in archaeology. “It’s a well-salted dig, but it gives them that opportunity to see what it’s like and to focus on critical thinking skills and problem solving.”
The Dig It! Archaeology Week camp takes the kids through the dig process straight through to creating displays for what they’ve found, she added.
“We break things up and scatter them throughout the site, and they have to realize, ‘oh, these things go together’ and reconstruct what it is,” she explained. “And they construct little displays and become curators themselves.”
The museum also offers Science Detectives Week, where the children learn STEM skills through experimentation and exploration.
“I lucked out because one of the former volunteers, who’s in university now, he started a group that’s based on bringing STEM programs to children. And he coordinates that with different first and second-year university students in different STEM programs.” Procopio said.
They make cars that move with the help of balloons, create their own silly slime and much more, she added.
Another new aspect to the camps this year is the addition of more First Nations information, displays and presenters on site.
“We have our presenters on site pretty much every week, and we’re getting our kids involved in that,” Procopio said, adding the museum now has a First Nations activity room. “And so it’s being able to bridge that as well, and bring that into their lives.”
The museum is near Deer Lake Park, so activities take place there as well as throughout the museum site.
The camps are designed to keep the children active with the nature walks, jumping games and even canoe outings, she said.
“All my staff, and me included, are High Five certified,” she said, explaining High Five is a program for promoting physical literacy. “We do things that are going to get them moving while we have them for six hours and they aren’t in front of a TV.”
There are often children with accessibility issues in attendance, but the camp leaders can modify their activities as needed, she added.
The camps also give the kids the chance to explore the historic buildings, and get a taste of life in the early days in Burnaby. At the Love Farmhouse, built in 1893, that taste of history includes cookies baked in the wood oven. An interpreter is there to handle the stove, according to Procopio, and the kids love making the cookies and finding out how the stove works.
The camps are filled for this year, and fill up fast – registration began in February. But each year has a few different offerings, so kids who’ve been before can try something new, and those coming for the first time will experience camps that have been fine-tuned.
“We learn what didn’t work, what was too difficult or too easy, and so it’s always a learning process,” Procopio said.
It takes a lot of effort to run the camps well, she adds.
“I credit a lot of our success to the just the amount of work that our staff and volunteers do on site, making it such an engaging place.”
