For the third year in a row, Missouri Conservation Corps has partnered with Powerhouse Community Development’s Camp I Love Me to bring Columbia and Boone County youth into nature for meaningful, experiential education. Camp I Love Me offers a variety of field trips and experiences, as well as free meals to all the youth they serve, and we step in as their gateway to the great outdoors. Since our initial involvement in 2024, we have hosted lessons that introduce learners to local parks and waterways, native birds and insects, recycling, and how to have fun outside!
This year, we put together ten lessons for our young campers (grades K-3), five of which we will share now (and five more when summer camp concludes in August!).
Camp #1: Habitat Restoration Walk
Our first lesson took place in Garth Nature Area where MCC Board Member Dan Miller led campers around this local park, asking our young learners to make observations, ask questions, and explore the area around them. Together, we looked, listened, and learned what a habitat was and how people interact with nature. We found wild plums growing on the trees, heard birds singing in the trees, and held our very first toad. From the smallest roly-poly to the largest oak tree, they truly tried to leave no stone unturned!
Camp #2: Purple Martins Visit
We then visited an open field at Cedar Ridge Elementary School where Eze Pojmann-Ezeonyilo taught campers about Purple Martins and their unique nesting behaviors. Purple Martin songbirds have a special relationship with people, as they are now completely dependent on human-made structures for nests. Eze actively monitors the birdhouses there, creating a unique opportunity for an educator like himself to show how the colony houses work, explore why different birds nest the ways they do, and encourage the campers to think about their own relationships with nature and wildlife. We also investigated bluebird and wren birdhouses, and challenged students to try creating a nest of their own.
Camp #3: Insects
All it takes is an insect net to go from “eww bugs!” to “I want to catch more!” On our trip to Bonnie View Nature Sanctuary, Eze Pojmann-Ezeonyilo and Markos McAuliffe with the Missouri Department of Agriculture helped turned insect-wary kids to insect-holding explorers! We started with an introduction to insects, led by MCC Naturalist Laura Semken, before turning our campers loose to find, catch, and investigate the many “creepy-crawlies” found on the edge of the prairie field. In no time at all, students were discovering their favorite insects, holding dogbane beetles, and releasing butterflies.
Camp #4: Food Forest
In Albert-Oakland Park, Laura Semken once again led an amazing activity about birds and their nests and diets. She creates her own natural “play-doh” and allows the campers’ creativity go wild! Using birdseed and other naturally-found items (like acorns, sticks, and leaves), each camper created their own nest to put in the woods. As they searched for their perfect homes in the woods, we also looked for signs of evidence of hungry wildlife—a chewed up leaf from a caterpillar, holes in tree bark from a burrowing insect, or bitten off flowers and leaves.
Camp #5: Wetlands Exploration
On a hot, late June morning, Camp I Love Me met us on the trail at 3M Wetlands. Sajo Abdallah, Summer LaRose, and Jackie Gehrt with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service came out with waders, nets, and buckets and got ready to get a little wet in the wetlands. During this lesson, campers explored what a wetland was, what made them so unique, and what kinds of animals could be found in one. What was most surprising was their enthusiasm to get IN the wetland themselves! Campers found snails, tadpoles, crayfish, and a lot of wet shoes and socks!
Of course, we could not do any of this without the support and collaboration of multiple agencies and organizations. This year, we are proud to work with City of Columbia Parks and Recreation, Missouri Department of Agriculture, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Missouri Department of Conservation, City of Columbia Office of Sustainability, Boone County Stormwater Management, and Rock Bridge Memorial State Park. Thank you for helping create these amazing memories!
