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Hello!

We are running a summer camp for 3-10 year olds (beginning Monday) in a
redwood forest. The goal is to not just look around from a fact-based
perspective, but try and understand the underlying physics by engineering
working models.

We have been inspired by David Attenborough's work. For instance:

   - Some plant leaves  (in areas of less light) have clear lenses to focus
   light http://www.asknature.org/strategy/bb5c3864e09d54a5211fd34bc9eb824d
   - Some desert creatures have scales with grooves in them that help
   gather water -
   http://www.asknature.org/strategy/3f47ec0d4343c94f82e19e103ac20c34
   - The gecko has nano-sized hair on its feet that helps it stick to
   surfaces - http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/science/30geck.html?_r=0

all of these can be explored through simple projects and experiments.
our goal is to spend the next 4 weeks exploring nature from this "systems
engineering" perspective and helping children make their own meaning. We
are putting up a lot of the content (with instructional videos) on our
online CuriosityMachine.org website so that children elsewhere can follow
along and get feedback on their projects.
Here is the main page that will have all the links to lesson plans and
videos: http://iridescentlearning.org/2013-curiosity-summer-camp/

In our search for prior work, we found a lot of programs that primarily
dealt with information transfer. We would really like to explore and see
what questions little ones have and what investigations they are able to
conduct. We will also be creating a documentary that follows the children
over the 4 weeks (~100 contact hours).

I would love to talk in greater depth with any folks who have similar
interests.

Tara

*Founder, CEO, IRIDESCENT*

www.IridescentLearning.org

310-309-0766, @tarachk <https://twitter.com/TaraChk>

*I IMAGINE. I INVENT. I ENGINEER. *

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