For many children who attend Creek Camp at Indian Creek Nature Center, a highlight is building dams with their fellow campers in Bena Brook. While this may look like nothing more than play and fun, there’s a lot happening in activities like this that can prepare children for a bright future.
“Since all of our summer camps are based on and incorporate different aspects of nature, and STEM concepts are almost everywhere in most parts of nature, pretty much all of our camps have opportunities to learn about and experience STEM concepts in various ways.” says Emily Roediger, ICNC Senior Naturalist.
Building a dam with friends requires a variety of skills, including creative problem-solving, adaptability, strong communication, resource management and environmental awareness. Alliant Energy sees these skills as essential for children in preparation for their future and is one of the reasons they support Creek Camp as a lead sponsor in 2024.
“Creek Camp at Indian Creek Nature Center aligns with Alliant Energy’s focus to protect and improve the natural environment within the communities we serve while also offering a unique STEM program for students that fosters their connection to the outdoors.” says May Farlinger, President of Interstate Power & Light Company and Vice President of Operations, Alliant Energy and Indian Creek Nature Center Board Member.
By learning a blend of technical and soft skills, children at Creek Camp are set up for success in tomorrow’s workforce. These skills are also essential for addressing environmental challenges and practicing environmental stewardship.
Alliant Energy hopes when campers are immersed in nature, they develop a strong bond, gain valuable environmental knowledge and skills, and become passionate advocates for conservation who work to build a sustainable future.
Creek Camp teaches these skills through hands-on experiences tailored to different ages of children, providing opportunities from early preschool days through middle school. There are so many opportunities to create Champions of Nature at Creek Camp!
Creek Camp provides children with a variety of ways to learn essential workforce skills while they are connecting with nature.
- Animal-based camp activities take a scientific approach to teaching about various wild animals and their habitats
- Outdoor-skills-based camp activities familiarize campers with various types of technologies, such as compasses, GPS, maps, matches, or flint and steel
- Water-based camp activities use either a model stream table, Indian Creek or Bena Brook to explore and engineer different modifications to stream systems
- Campers’ curiosity is encouraged and often sparks discussion using STEM principles, such as trying to use math to figure out how old the resident animals are
“While campers have opportunities to learn about and experience multiple aspects of STEM and related skills, something almost every camper has the opportunity to experience nearly every day is observing and experiencing different aspects of nature, asking questions out of the curiosity those observations and experiences inspire, and exploring different ways of finding answers and learning new information. These are fundamental basics to lifelong skills like critical thinking, scientific methodology and learning in general.” adds Roediger.
While Roediger and other Creek Camp staff oversee the play happening during the dam-building sessions in Bena Brook, they observe all the skills the children are learning. Likewise, Alliant Energy sees the campers as future innovators combining the right skillset with a passion for nature to provide environmental solutions.
“Supporting lifelong learning that starts early gives Alliant Energy an opportunity to encourage a future workforce that is innovative, connected to nature and could someday even develop new clean energy solutions for a brighter tomorrow,” says Farlinger. “Alliant Energy is proud to partner with Indian Creek Nature Center to bring this educational opportunity to life.”
