Thirteen young people participate in second day of Camp Chillisquaque with special program on bats

Thirteen young people, ages 7-12, participated in the second day of the Camp Chillisquaque day camp program at the Montour Preserve. It is run by the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association's Vernal School partnership. 

Participants learned about each of Pennsylvania's threatened and endangered species and what they can do to help advocate for them. They also learned about habitats and did some assessments on one of the preserve's aquatic habitats (Chillisquaque Creek) with sampling for pH, temperature and macroinvertebrate density ... all made possible thanks to support from the DegenSTEAM lending lab MWEE kits. 

The day's special speaker was PA Game Commission educator Kelly Pollock, who shared a program on bats that included "building" a bat, a few bat-related games to illustrate some of the issues migrating bats experience and an overview presentation with numerous specimens.

After lunch, participants then worked on advocating for species they felt especially connected to, creating posters, a song and a video. 

You can hear the song, about the American bittern, here:​

Photos from the experience, including a few of the posters created by participants, include: