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Camp helps girls apply math, science to life

Students become partners in a simulated fishing company as part of the USF program.

By CATHERINE McCARTHY
Published July 16, 2006

GULFPORT - Inside a house along Clam Bayou, a time warp opens. With each passing minute 34 girls are propelled into the future. They are learning that time is money.

"Has anyone opened their own checking account yet?" asks Theresa Greely, co-director of the University of South Florida's Oceanography Camp for Girls. A third of them raise their hands. Personal assets aside, each girl is about to become a partner in a commercial fishing company.

For a decade, Greely and counselors have used this simulation game to apply the knowledge gained during the camp, employing the rising high school freshmen's math and science skills to problem-solve as a group.

"We're in the game to make money," exclaims Greely, imitating a banker. "Do you want that kind of business?"

Outlining the rules of the game, she explains, "The integrity of teams can be questionable. Other teams have been known to relocate other teams' ships."

Greely asks the girls to draw from the knowledge they've acquired over the past three weeks, particularly the interviews conducted at the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. The institute provides scientists for the girls to interview. By asking about their careers in science, the girls learn more about "what's important to them at this moment in their lives," Greely says.

This simulation game encourages the girls to consider the point of view of the various players in a commercial fishing setting: the managers, fishermen, environmentalists.

The 34 female campers are divided into six teams. The teams develop a company, logo and a radio jingle. Each team must decide how many boats they will buy, sell and trade and where the boats will trawl. The duties of "ship handler, bidder, banker, negotiator" and "paper pusher" are divided among the teammates.

Each camper has gone through a rigorous selection process to get here. After submitting a written application, Angela Lodge, co-director of the camp and trainer for USF's College of Marine Science's Education Outreach, and a team of graduate students interview each applicant at their middle schools. There have never been fewer than 30 campers in the 16-year history of the camp. Of the hundreds of alumni, two campers are graduate students at USF in the marine sciences.

Katie Gardner, 27, "has gone full circle, and then some more," Lodge says. An alum of the 1992 session, she is set to complete her master's degree in marine chemistry from USF in December.

"My parents heard about it at the time and decided it was right up my alley," she says. "It wasn't as competitive to come to camp then as it is now. I knew I wanted to be a marine biologist my entire life. At the time, marine biology was the end-all and be-all."

Gardner returned to camp a second year in 1993, before peer mentor was an official title. "I came to reunions for a few years after that and eventually drifted away from the community," she says. "But at the end of college, I knew that I wanted to come back and work with Theresa."

A graduate of St. Petersburg High School and FSU with a bachelor's degree in geology, Gardner served as a GK12 fellow for the past year, working with sixth- and seventh-grade students at Meadowlawn Middle School.

"Following the FCAT, students had no interest in being in the classroom," Gardner says. She took them on field trips for plant conservation and to Tampa Baywatch, emphasizing "lots of hands-on learning experiments." This is her second year back at the camp as a peer mentor.

From its inception in 1990, Greely kept things operating with grants. For the past decade, she worked to build endowments; this is the first year the camp is fully funded by endowments from the Progress Energy Foundation, the United States Geological Survey and community members.

The girls never pay tuition. For many, Greely says, this is their first experience in a day-camp setting.

With the camp for seven years, Lodge uses it as training ground, preparing the girls for the classroom setting.

From the front of the room, she serves as guardian of the game board, which represents the ocean in which the teams are fishing.

"As long as there are schools in Pinellas County to provide us with girls, there will be a camp," Lodge says. "I love what I do."

While the camp is fully endowed after receiving seed money from the National Science Foundation, the program is still based on grants. The three-year grants run out this year, and Lodge and others are asking the community for help.

"The girls go to high school more confident about math and science," says Lodge, though she stresses the camp isn't just about academics. The counselors take time to prepare students for the social pressures that come with high school, holding "teen Issues" sessions.

"We just want to see them succeed, making the right friends and making good decisions," she says.

As the end of game draws near, the teams present jingles they have developed for their companies. Math and business theory aside, there is always an opportunity for fun. Some of girls have cut out beards, hats and eye patches for their performances.

Allison Nall, 16, is a junior-to-be at Seminole High School. She attended the camp in 2004. This is her first year back as a peer mentor.

"It's really cool watching them go through the experience I went through," she says. "It made me more open to people in general.

"Coming from a private school, I didn't know a lot of people. It helped me make new friends."

Team 2 sits in the back of the room at a folding table littered with construction paper. They have made a large sign to represent their new company, Ninja Penguin Inc.

Ninja Penguin Inc. partner Ciara Mitchell, 14, will attend Gibbs High School in the fall. Her favorite experience thus far was "going to Shell Key, because I'd never been there before. I canoed for the first time."

Ninja Penguin collectively rushes to the front of the room as the last presenters. "Buy our fish! Buy our fish!" And to add bilingual flair, their peer mentor Michael Martinez, 33, sings, "Compre nuestros pescados!" as the girls dissolve into laughter.

Tiffany Jockers, 14, has made herself a pink paper crown to denote her role in the second group. "Queen Bidder" is clearly written in red marker. She is responsible for purchasing ships at auction to add to her group's growing fleet.

"Going to SeaWorld was my favorite thing," she says. "All I've ever wanted to do growing up was be a marine biologist, to train killer whales and teach conservation through working with animals."

Of her camp experience, she says, "I have a lot more self-confidence than I did. I guess I'm not as shy as I was."

She pauses. "I don't think I was every shy. Was I ever shy?" she asks, nudging teammate Jamie Laudini, 14.

"No," Laudini replies.

Laudini will attend Seminole High School in the fall. Like Nall, Laudini said she enjoyed the research cruise the best during her time at camp.

"I was really, really shy," she says of her arrival at camp. Now that has changed. She says she knows more about science and thinks she'll pursue a science career after high school.

[Last modified July 15, 2006, 23:39:27]