Last week, the SoundWaters Coastal Education Center campus in Stamford, Conn., was filled with young students exploring the natural world by catching fish, wading through marshes, making coral reefs out of clay, and more. Each activity was part of SoundWaters’ Science Stars camp, which has run for more than 15 years as an introduction to science for girls in grades 2-8 in Stamford Public Schools.
Leo Gonzalez is turning 13 this year, and said she’s loved the camp so far. “It’s been really fun,” she said, wading in the marsh next to the SoundWaters building. “I have a lot more people [here] that are like me.” Laughing, she added: “I fell in a hole, like, four times!”
While Leo said she does prefer more artistic activities, she’s met other girls at the camp who like doing things “out of the ordinary.” Like measuring tiny shrimp, fish and eels ankle-deep in mud.
Educators accompanied the girls to the marsh, identifying animal species and providing directions, mostly to avoid jumping into the deep, murky water.
“I know when I was a kid, cost was a big barrier to me doing programs like this,” said Katie Boback, an educator coordinator for the program. She’s 25 now, and said she would have loved to experience a program like the one she gets to put on now as a kid. “It's really important that kids get to come here regardless of their background or their financial situation.”
According to Boback, the camp hosted almost one hundred students across all eligible grades this year. Of those students, more than three-fourths were on some type of financial aid.
In the midst of uncertainty within the sciences under recent budget cuts from the federal administration, many organizations in Connecticut and across the country are facing difficult financial decisions. But SoundWaters’ financial stability looks different.
“We are fortunate not to rely on any federal funding,” said Bob Mazzone, who serves as the vice president of development at SoundWaters. Instead, the group relies on donations and funding through philanthropic and environmental groups.
Mazzone anticipates the Science Stars camp will continue well into the future. But both he and Boback are worried about the sciences outside the campus.
“If you look at it from the top down, there’s definitely cause to be scared in science right now. A lot of research is losing funding, and programs are losing funding as well… Nationwide, there’s a big push against science in a lot of communities,” Boback said.
“Working at this job and running this program gives me faith in the future, because while there’s a lot happening from the top down, there’s also a lot happening from the ground up. The hope that these kids have and how excited they are to learn and to get outside really inspires me in a brighter future while I’m trying to inspire them to create [it.]”
SoundWaters’ Science Stars program included guest speakers across fields in science, from environmental literacy to materials science. It ran from April 14-18.
