Photo by Jenny Kirk Instructor Monica Dorn helps a student fold a piece of paper into three equal parts for a kooky insect project at Hendricks Science Camp on Tuesday.

HENDRICKS — They started with a blank sheet of paper, but by the end, the students had created wacky insect characters.

The animation was one of the many activities the K-6 students have taken part in during the two-week long Science Camp in Hendricks. Tuesday marked the seventh day.

“Lynd did a culture camp for two weeks, and we’re doing a science camp for two weeks,” Science Camp coordinator Monica Dorn said. “We decided to make it nature themed because we wanted the kids outdoors as much as possible, so we are using some curriculum from Project WILD. It’s a program that I received training from when I was in college.”

Project WILD is a wildlife-focused conservation education program based on the premise that young people and educators have a vital interest in learning about the natural world. A book called “Hands-On Nature” is also being used.

“We’re pulling ideas out,” Dorn said. “We’ve identified trees. We looked at bugs (Tuesday). We have some kayaking going on down at the lake. And we’re going to do an earthworm habitat — collect some earthworms to do some experiments — in a few minutes. These kids go home tired at the end of the day and we love it.”

Along with Dorn, who teaches science for grades 5-12 during the regular school year at Hendricks, teachers Sharon Evert, Mary Chick and Meghan Carmody help with the camp.

“It’s going great,” Carmody said. “The kids love it. They’re really into it.”

Along with a trip to Camden State Park last week, Carmody said the students have been taking part in a lot of outdoor activities.

“(Tuesday), we went insect collecting,” she said. “They loved that. They found bees and ladybugs, all that fun stuff. (Monday), they did seed collecting, so they put socks on over their shoes and walked through grass to see what seeds they could collect — like a bug would.”

The fifth- and sixth-graders also got to go kayaking on Tuesday at Lake Hendricks.

“They had a lot of fun with that,” Carmody said. “It’s a fun group of kids — kids who want to be here.”

According to Carmody, about 45 elementary students are participating in the Science Camp. Roughly half of them are from Hendricks and the other half are Lynd students. Another 17 youngsters are attending the preschool camp.

“It’s a lot of fun,” said Carmody, a first-year music teacher at Hendricks. “I’m glad I’m helping with the camp.”

For the creative insect project, second- through fourth-grade students began by folding a white piece of paper in three equal parts.

“This project involves a little bit of art and a little bit of science,” Dorn said. “We’re going to be drawing the three parts of an insect — the head, the thorax and the abdomen.”

After the students had drawn and colored the head on the first section of paper, they were asked to mix things up by switching projects with another student. Most students were a little hesitant at first, but they eventually traded with someone. Next, the campers began drawing the thorax on the second fold of the paper, making sure to stay within the two draw marks the previous artist had left.

“Think about the insects you saw this morning,” Dorn said. “Can you draw inspiration from them? Does it have wings? Does it have legs? Does it have hairs on its back like a spider?”

Dorn added that insects usually have six legs, which is what makes them an insect, but if the students wanted to draw more or less legs, that was OK with her.

“You can also draw their habitat, which his where they live,” she said. “And is it an insect that might have prey in its feet?”

After switching again, the students drew the final part of the insect — it’s abdomen.

“It’s way funnier to keep switching,” Dorn said.

Dorn said there was talk about possibly doing an engineering camp this year, but she advocated for science because she couldn’t justify doing indoor activities the whole time during Minnesota’s nicest month of the year.

“I think the fun thing about having the kids out in nature, first of all, is it fills a real deficit in their lives,” she said. “I think kids don’t get outside as much as they used to. It has an exciting influence on the kids to be outside, but it also has a calming influence when they get outside and they’re actually looking at things and they’re so absorbed in nature.”

Dorn said the students were enthusiastic about finding bugs — and even a dead snake — on their many nature walks.

“It’s so exciting for them,” Dorn said. “I think it gives them something that they don’t always get during the summer. Kids want to stay indoors. They want to play video games. They want to look on their phones. And these aren’t bad things to do, but there are so many things for them to see and appreciate outside.”

Since the Science Camp started, Dorn said she believes the students have become better observers.

“Some of the students will come up to me the next day and say, ‘Hey, you know we talked about that tree yesterday, well I saw that tree in my yard,’ or ‘I saw it in the park with my little brother,'” Dorn said. “So if we can get them into that mode of going outside and learning about the things that are around them in their immediate environment, I think they’ll appreciate them more.”

Dorn likes that the camp has given students an opportunity to be more adventurous, too.

“Some of these kids are trying things they never would have tried before on their own, so this is a good experience for them, I think,” she said. “We have so much fun.”

On Tuesday afternoon, fifth- and sixth-graders were creating unique shadow boxes.

“It’s like a shadow box journal,” Evert said. “Instead of a written journal, it’s a visual one. It’s an arts integration unit.”

Wyatt Hughes said he was having fun at Science Camp.

“We’re making these shadow boxes,” said Hughes, who will be a seventh-grader in the fall. “I’m finding (magazine cut-outs of) flowers and a cow. It’s fun.”

Hughes’ favorite part has been all the art projects. Soon-to-be sixth-grader Katherine Kroger said art and going on field trips were her favorite part of the camp.

“It’s very good,” Kroger said. “It’s very fun to do.”

Kroger said she also enjoyed going kayaking. She didn’t even mind falling in and getting wet, she said.

“We just got back,” she said. “The water was really choppy, but it was really fun.”

On the schedule today is a trip to Oak Lake.

“We’re going to look at animal tracks and water invertebrates,” Dorn said. “We are a busy group. They have a field station at Oak Lake and SDSU (South Dakota State University) runs it. You get to bring groups of kids out in the summer. It’s really cool. I love it.”

Ultimately, the Science Camp offers a fun-filled, hands-on experience that could quite possibly spark additional science adventures for the students in the future.

“My goal is to never have a single kid turn to their parents this summer and say, ‘I’m bored,'” Dorn said. “The skills and activities we’re giving them now are ones they can take home and go outside and do by themselves without needing anything to be plugged in.”