Tangled in the Food Web at SPREE HQ June 18-22

This week at SPREE HQ, campers delved into local ecosystems and explored the food webs of the parks and waterways of Denver. We started off with the basics: learning what all living things need to survive. All living things need: air, water, soil/food, and sunshine! We planted our own little bean seeds to see if this would prove true (and the did grow during the week!). We also learned about another very important aspect of food chains on Monday as well, "FBIs!" Fungus, Bacteria, Insects, and Scavengers are very important to food webs and ecosystems because they help balance everything out. They help to break down things that are dead, and make new resources for the other living things to survive. We learned that even though we can't see it, bacteria are everywhere! We collected some samples from around camp, and grew some little bacteria colonies in agar plates over the week! To wrap up our day, we played a fun tag game outside where everyone got to play a role in the food web!

On Tuesday, we took our knowledge about food webs and applied to our own park. We learned to identify some plants around camp, acted out predator and prey relationships of local animals, and explored the river and how it connects to the park food web. Then, we started our project of making ecosystem dioramas.

We switched our focus to the river food web on Wednesday. We learned about different types of aquatic plants that live in the water, discovered the crazy adapations of some aquatic macroinvertebrates, and made some craft dragonflies. Then, we caught some critters in the river and sorted them by where they sit in the food web.

Thursday was field day! We walked to nearby Vanderbilt park to explore the food webs of plants, animals, and the pond there. We did scavenger hunts, played games, and looked for signs of animals that live in the park that we couldn't see.

The week wrapped up with a day themed around ecosystem engineers and keystone species. We did activities about how different animals big and small such as wolves, bees, and beavers have huge impacts on the food webs and ecosystems that they live in.
Then, as always, we wrapped up the week with a graduation ceremony for all the campers!