2025 Summer Camp

What are Forever Chemicals (PFAS)? Are they the same as microplastics? Why should we be concerned about Forever Chemicals? What can we do to avoid the damages to our body and to the earth by the Forever Chemicals?

These questions serve as the guide for the 2025 summer camp geared toward students from rising 5th to 7th graders (upper elementary).

During the 3 week camp, students will:

1. be introduced to the basics of chemistry, and how chemistry serves as a tool to investigate the challenges we are facing in today's environment. Field trips will be organized to visit local streams, to collect samples which will be sent to labs for testing.
2. learn about the effect of pollutants and types of pollution; relate to chemistry such as differences between microplastics and PFAS. Students will deep dive to the molecular level to compare and contrast differences and similarities among various polutants. Students must be interested and comfortable learning and using computer programs to investigate molecular structures.
3. receive the test results from the first week of sample collections, analyze the data and compare with data collected from other environmental organizations. Students will learn to write a presentation and deliver to an audience of parents and students.