Stay Cool, Stay Green!

by Harnoor — Stewarttown Middle School, Georgetown, ON

Harnoor representing a green leaf

October 2011 — On a recent summer drop-in-session at Willow Park Ecology Centre, the summer day campers, WPEC officials and I played some games that can easily be enjoyed anywhere. One of the game was Owl and Mice, which involved one person being an owl (who was blindfolded because owls don’t have good vision). The other players were given little bells to ring in order to baffle the owl. The owl was then to follow the sounds and try to find a person, satisfying the name of the game, Owl and Mice. After all these games, we started to explore the pond and look at a number of interesting wildlife, including green frogs and bullfrogs.

It was another great day at Willow Park Ecology Centre yet again with kids from the local church attending the summer day camps that are held within WPEC. We purified water, using the sun, cooked some bagel bites and went to the pond to explore the animals and other wildlife creatures that were situated there.

One of our group tasks, purifying water using the sun was rather appealing. In order to successfully do so, you need a basin, some lightweight rocks, a smaller bowl, plastic saran wrap and of course some dirty water. If you were stranded in the middle of a forest, this is a great way to drink healthy water and remain hydrated. You place saran wrap at the very top of the basin until it is firmly fastened. There should already be dirty water under the saran wrap. The last step is to place some lightweight rocks on top and after some time, you have yourself some purified water that you can drink.

The next activity involved cooking bagel bites outside in the sun. This activity conserved a lot of energy and took some time to cook. The bagel bites were cooked in a solar oven which was built handmade by one of the WPEC volunteers. It was consisted of cardboard, tinfoil, saran wrap and pylons. To build the solar oven you needed to cut out the top as well as the bottom square on the top of the cardboard and place saran wrap between it. On the bottom of the cardboard you needed wrap tinfoil so that the bagel bites could get cooked on the bottom and the top. This might take a couple of hours but once it’s done you will definitely cherish it.

Lastly, we went to the pond and caught many wetland creatures that were lurking about. Many kids were enjoying their time catching or rather attempting to catch fish, water spiders and even toads. I, for one had a great time and I can’t wait to come to Willow Park again.

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