Whaling Museum and Education Center in Cold Spring Harbor giving out camp scholarships

The Whaling Museum and Education Center in Cold Spring Harbor is offering eight scholarships to its “Sound Explorers” camp this summer.

Geared to students going into grades 2 to 5, the one-week Sound Explorers camp, which runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 19-23, will feature a trip at low tide to the nearby Long Island Sound, where campers will examine and document the habitat and wildlife they encounter and collect water samples to test their clarity and pH. Other activities will include making water filters out of plastic bottles to demonstrate how to use a filtration system out of rocks, sand and other found items, and using the center’s coastal environment model to learn how water runoff affects the aquifer.

‘We believe that when children are engaged physically in learning it just is a more substantial way to keep the information,” says Liz Fusco, education manager for the center, adding, “They’re more excited to do it. They feel like experiments are fun, but while they’re having fun, they’re actually learning.”

In addition to teaching the local history of Cold Spring Harbor and its earlier life as a whaling community, the Whaling Museum and Education Center focuses on how to protect the marine life environment, notes Fusco.

The deadline for scholarship applications, which will be granted to families in need, is Aug. 9. Apply at cshwhalingmuseum.org.