HOLLAND - Ah, summer camp. Cabins in the woods. Counselors. Young campers in hiking boots waiting to catch frogs.
A debate about planetary physics.
OK, maybe this isn't the summer camp you went to, where the question of whose bunk to short sheet was considered mental exercise.
This is Camp Inquiry. A thinking kid's camp.
It marks the first foray into the summer camping business by the Center for Inquiry, the Buffalo-area think tank that dissects everything from paranormal claims to religious beliefs and alternative medicine under a strictly scientific lens.
For a week in July, campers scrutinized fossils and animal tracks while discussing evolution vs. creationism, held a “superstition fair” about odd beliefs through history, watched a magician perform and then spill his secrets, and pored over purported Bigfoot photos while debating whether such a being could exist.
For the baker's dozen of 7- to 16-year-old campers, it was an introduction to the concepts of skepticism and scientific reasoning for which the Center for Inquiry is known. The center recently opened a public policy office in Washington to try to infuse more science and secularism into Capitol Hill debates on such things as stem cell research. Camp Inquiry reached out to a younger - but no less thoughtful - set.
“Actually, scientists believe that aliens can be real because there is some plant life on Jupiter,” offered 7-year-old Charlie Wannall of Houston when asked what he thought of things like UFOs.
“No, Jupiter's a gas planet,” 9-year-old Kyle St. Amant interjected.
“I know,” Charlie told him. “But still, there is some plant life.”
Added Kyle, “On Mars, too, there is some evidence of liquid water ... The ice caps are freezing cold. They can hydrogenate you and freeze you.”
On Bigfoot, both boys agreed he was “likely mythical.”
From the outside, the camp south of Buffalo looks like any other, with its cabins and wooded trails. And the kids would fit in at any summer rec camp: Kyle wore a “Basketball is life” T-shirt and hiking boots as he read a Hardy Boys mystery. Charlie practiced magic tricks.
But the traditional activities like hikes and stargazing opened up less traditional discussions on topics from evolution to mythology.
One activity had campers pairing up and making “voodoo dolls” of each other. “Does your leg hurt?” they would ask each other as they poked the dolls with needles.
The kids made monster masks as they discussed whether creatures like Bigfoot and the Abominable Snowman could exist based on what they know about genetics and how animals survive.
The idea wasn't to discount beliefs, but to get campers thinking about them.
“We all admit the paranormal is fascinating,” said Amanda Chesworth, camp organizer. She is the educational director for the center's Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.
“A lot of people think that by being skeptical or scientific we're ruining it,” she said. “But of course, we don't feel that way. We're still enjoying the mysteries.”
Douglas Wagoner had been a subscriber to Skeptical Inquirer magazine and other Center for Inquiry publications, though his 11-year-old daughter, Linda, had not shown any particular interest in skepticism or the paranormal. That changed when the brochure for Camp Inquiry arrived at their home near Boston.
Linda, who likes reading about superstitions and ghost stories, said she was there to learn about the stars and magic. The camp proved educational, but without feeling like it.
“From her perspective it was just a traditional camp experience with an interesting collection of people,” her father said. “I liked the idea of her being exposed to an environment where people questioning everything is normal.”
More camps are supplementing traditional activities with a particular theme, such as computers or tennis, said Peg Smith, chief executive of the American Camp Association, which accredits more than 2,400 camps.
Whatever the focus, Smith said, camps provide young people the opportunity for primary experiences in an era where so much comes to them through secondary sources, such as the media or technology.
That was key to the creation of Camp Inquiry, Chesworth said.
“This is our first opportunity to use (the) outdoors and be very active when we teach this. It's normally in a classroom setting. Children are having their first opportunity to really get excited about this stuff,” said Chesworth, who made the camp's logo a Superman symbol with a question mark where the “S” should be.
The response from the first campers surprised even the counselors, especially when the kids took it upon themselves to create their own role-playing evolution game and left camp promising to build a Web site for it and communicate online.
“It's very complex,” Chesworth said of the new game. “They basically have created a planet with all of the characteristics of Earth. They start out as the same creature and then they have to win points that give them adaptations like claws or venom, basically things that will help them survive.”
“I had forgotten just how intelligent kids can be. I was amazed,” Chesworth said. “They taught us a lot of things.”
Camp organizers plan to hold two sessions next year and in 2008 open similar camps in Los Angeles and Florida, where the Amherst-based Center for Inquiry has other branches.
---
On the Net:
Camp Inquiry: www.campinquiry.org
Center for Inquiry: www.centerforinquiry.net
AP-ES-08-19-06 0811EDT
OK, maybe this isn't the summer camp you went to, where the question of whose bunk to short sheet was considered mental exercise.
This is Camp Inquiry. A thinking kid's camp.
It marks the first foray into the summer camping business by the Center for Inquiry, the Buffalo-area think tank that dissects everything from paranormal claims to religious beliefs and alternative medicine under a strictly scientific lens.
For a week in July, campers scrutinized fossils and animal tracks while discussing evolution vs. creationism, held a “superstition fair” about odd beliefs through history, watched a magician perform and then spill his secrets, and pored over purported Bigfoot photos while debating whether such a being could exist.
For the baker's dozen of 7- to 16-year-old campers, it was an introduction to the concepts of skepticism and scientific reasoning for which the Center for Inquiry is known. The center recently opened a public policy office in Washington to try to infuse more science and secularism into Capitol Hill debates on such things as stem cell research. Camp Inquiry reached out to a younger - but no less thoughtful - set.
“Actually, scientists believe that aliens can be real because there is some plant life on Jupiter,” offered 7-year-old Charlie Wannall of Houston when asked what he thought of things like UFOs.
“No, Jupiter's a gas planet,” 9-year-old Kyle St. Amant interjected.
“I know,” Charlie told him. “But still, there is some plant life.”
Added Kyle, “On Mars, too, there is some evidence of liquid water ... The ice caps are freezing cold. They can hydrogenate you and freeze you.”
On Bigfoot, both boys agreed he was “likely mythical.”
From the outside, the camp south of Buffalo looks like any other, with its cabins and wooded trails. And the kids would fit in at any summer rec camp: Kyle wore a “Basketball is life” T-shirt and hiking boots as he read a Hardy Boys mystery. Charlie practiced magic tricks.
But the traditional activities like hikes and stargazing opened up less traditional discussions on topics from evolution to mythology.
One activity had campers pairing up and making “voodoo dolls” of each other. “Does your leg hurt?” they would ask each other as they poked the dolls with needles.
The kids made monster masks as they discussed whether creatures like Bigfoot and the Abominable Snowman could exist based on what they know about genetics and how animals survive.
The idea wasn't to discount beliefs, but to get campers thinking about them.
“We all admit the paranormal is fascinating,” said Amanda Chesworth, camp organizer. She is the educational director for the center's Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.
“A lot of people think that by being skeptical or scientific we're ruining it,” she said. “But of course, we don't feel that way. We're still enjoying the mysteries.”
Douglas Wagoner had been a subscriber to Skeptical Inquirer magazine and other Center for Inquiry publications, though his 11-year-old daughter, Linda, had not shown any particular interest in skepticism or the paranormal. That changed when the brochure for Camp Inquiry arrived at their home near Boston.
Linda, who likes reading about superstitions and ghost stories, said she was there to learn about the stars and magic. The camp proved educational, but without feeling like it.
“From her perspective it was just a traditional camp experience with an interesting collection of people,” her father said. “I liked the idea of her being exposed to an environment where people questioning everything is normal.”
More camps are supplementing traditional activities with a particular theme, such as computers or tennis, said Peg Smith, chief executive of the American Camp Association, which accredits more than 2,400 camps.
Whatever the focus, Smith said, camps provide young people the opportunity for primary experiences in an era where so much comes to them through secondary sources, such as the media or technology.
That was key to the creation of Camp Inquiry, Chesworth said.
“This is our first opportunity to use (the) outdoors and be very active when we teach this. It's normally in a classroom setting. Children are having their first opportunity to really get excited about this stuff,” said Chesworth, who made the camp's logo a Superman symbol with a question mark where the “S” should be.
The response from the first campers surprised even the counselors, especially when the kids took it upon themselves to create their own role-playing evolution game and left camp promising to build a Web site for it and communicate online.
“It's very complex,” Chesworth said of the new game. “They basically have created a planet with all of the characteristics of Earth. They start out as the same creature and then they have to win points that give them adaptations like claws or venom, basically things that will help them survive.”
“I had forgotten just how intelligent kids can be. I was amazed,” Chesworth said. “They taught us a lot of things.”
Camp organizers plan to hold two sessions next year and in 2008 open similar camps in Los Angeles and Florida, where the Amherst-based Center for Inquiry has other branches.
---
On the Net:
Camp Inquiry: www.campinquiry.org
Center for Inquiry: www.centerforinquiry.net
AP-ES-08-19-06 0811EDT
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