Summer Camp 2025 Wrap Up
The Summer 2025 Camp Season has ended and there were 10 camps that stood out! 10 camps ranging from farming to ecology, power to engineering. Farm animals, biology, recycling and sustainability. We covered it all. Here is a quick review of the camps and their successes.
The ten camps - all co-taught by well-trained MenTerns (middle school students trained to lead and teach) and attended by a wide array of students. Some from this neighborhood, the suburbs, and the wider city. Some were public school children, most were homeschooled. It was fun to teach with and interact with such a diverse range of learning styles. Here are the results.
In addition to our STEAM programming we also hosted two amazing Girl Scouts working to earn their Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland Silver Award. The two middle schoolers created a test camp followed by a week-long camp where they designed and delivered the content and curriculum based on what they had learned at my summer camps!
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The kid with the guinea pig is the MenTern teacher!
If you’d like more information about signing your family up for our innovative STEAM programming, follow us on social media or follow this link to learn more, read our newsletter, or contact us!
THE SUMMER CAMPS
Life Finds A Way - Learn More
Exploring the intersection between biology, ecology, farming, and STEMPower Wranglers - Learn More
Introducing young minds to the basics of physical electricityMore Power - Learn More
With a basic understanding of electricity and STEM, this camp puts it to workAtomic Farming - Learn More
Quantum effects in nature and exploring the systems of chemistry and biology on a farmHow Mezzacello Harnessed The Wind - Learn More
Read a book and build a power system with a wind turbineSimple Machines And You - Learn More
Introducing the six simple machines and basic power tools to build projectsPartners Not Pets - Learn More
Caring, treating, and managing farm animals and exploring their roles on an urban farmEcology Connections - Learn More
How we integrate technology and systems into our integrated ecologiesReimagine Recycling - Learn More
Reframing what recycling means when you see everything as an option in natureLife Below Water - Learn More
Water is a valuable resource and this camp brings it all into context, capture, clean, provideGirl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland Silver Award Sustainable Agriculture Camp - Learn More
Two Girl Scouts created an entire program on agriculture for elementary school kids hosted by Mezzacello Urban Farm and co-taught by my MenTern, Amaya and her friend, Tilly
SNAPSHOTS
Life Finds a Way
Working Together To Save The World
This camp allowed kids to explore webs of life, systems, and applied STEAM farming. Three teams developed solutions to common problems on a farm like:
Keeping animals safe and healthy by exploring their wastes, feed, and exercise access
Building power and recucling systems for electrical, water, and making balanced feed for five species of animals
Designing systems of identifying wastes and their practical uses to provide feed, fertilizer, and water collection
The MenTerns for this camp were Oliver, JuJu, Lula, and Theo
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Power Wranglers
Two MenTerns Setting Up Power Stations For Teaching Basic Electricity
This camp empowered kids to explore apsects of physical electricity and applied STEAM farming. Three teams developed solutions to building and deploying solar and wind energy on a farm like:
Understanding components of a solar array, battery, wiring, voltage, amperage, and grounding
Building and dismantling the system and running tests to determine efficacy of power collection
Plugging the system into an AC/DC generate to monitor energy profiles and explore Ohm’s Law and Entropy
The MenTerns for this camp were Amaya, Oliver, Lula, and Theo
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More Power
Practical Electrical Systems and Engineering
This camp encouraged kids to explore the practical benefits and use of renewable electricity and applied STEAM farming. One MenTern and one camper leveraged systems designed in the morning camp to explore solar and wind energy on a farm and further develop sustainable systems:
Created a video explaining their systems and how they were deployed
Created a portable AC/DC Generator with a waterproof and weather proof case
Created a solar and battery-powered sand heater for heating the winter biodome to keep delicate plants and baby chicks warm, dry, and alive during the winter
The MenTern for this camp was Theo
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Atomic Farming
Exploring The Atom Through Baby Chicks
This camp saw kids exploring apsects of the macroscopic, chemical, molecular, atomic, and quantum reality of nature in applied STEAM farming. Three teams explored and developed artisitic, physical, and engineering solutions to exploring the way our physical experiences and the quantum reality of life interact. Each of the three teams:
Wrote haikus and written sort stories about an element or a quantum interaction on the farm
Created models of standard molecules (CRISPR/CAS9 DNA segment, Ammonia, Water) and created a physical model with electromagnetic, enzymatic and catalyst interactive components
Wrote, stage-directed, and created a “silly soap opera” called “The atoms of our lives about the six essential atomic heroes of all life on earth, and the bizarre love triangle of Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen in the town of Carbonville
The MenTerns for this camp were Oliver, Lula, Juju, Grady, Will, Maxwell, Harrison, and Theo
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How Mezzacello Harnessed The Wind
Preparing To Build a Wind-Power Station
This camp allowed kids to explore energy and problem-solving by reading the book or watching the movie, “The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind” and then giving them tools and challenges to create their own energy solutions using applied STEAM on a farm:
Repurposed solar and wind arrays and the portable AC/DC generator to power tools to turn weeds and waste into animal feed
Used two 50-gallon barrels, duct tape, steel wire and steel table legs to create a stacked sand or water battery that used gravity and a spinning turbine blade to create energy
Wrote their own story, play, or series of poems of how they would find a way to power their dreams in their world
The MenTerns for this camp Maxwell and Harrison
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Simple Machines And You
Mastering Simple Machines and Tools
This camp prompted kids to explore simple machines and their compound components and how we can use them and applied STEAM on an urban farm. Three teams explored how to:
Understand complex machines and break them down to elementary simple machines to better understand how things work
Built solar water recyclers with simple machines, heat, pressure, and a minimum of moving parts
Designed, built, and tested a new lef-locking door for the biodome that would allow rabbits, chickens, guinea, pigs, and quail to coexist and stay safe and NOT escape, while allowing entrance and exit
The MenTerns for this camp were Oliver, Maxwell, and Harrison
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Partners Not Pets
These Engineers Trimming Rabbit Nails - Alice Cooper is Not Bothered, But my MenTerns, They Are Feeling It
This camp asked kids to care for and discover solutions to keep the various farm animals at Mezzacello Urban Farm safe and healthy. Two teams uncovered and deployed solutions using applied STEAM on the farm:
Proper care, disinfection, and feeding of the seven species of mammals, avians, fish, and insects at Mezzacello
Care and diagnosis of common animal conditions like leg mites, wing and nail trimming, and deworming
Explore vet tech and diagnosis tools such as temperature, pH, skin, feather, fur, and droppings along with AI to determine food options amongst weeds and conditions of animals
The MenTerns for this camp were Oliver, Maxwell, and Harrison
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Ecology Connections
Making Biochar, Compost, Fertilizer, and Recycling Water In Our Ecology
This camp promoted kids to explore the spirit of recycling and problem-solving from the atom up and then giving them tools and challenges to create their own unique solutions using applied STEAM on a farm. Two teams were able to:
Reuse animal wastes, algae, drywall, weeds, ammonia, and diatomaceous earth to create a range of fertilizers and thest the NPK of each
Create a biochar oven and make biochar from hornbeam branches, hydrangea, algae, and scrap lumber trim
Using arts and crafts materials create the perfect ecosystem to keep the fountain at Mezzacello safe, diverse, and healthy
The MenTerns for this camp were Oliver, Maxwell, and Harrison
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Reimagine Recycling
Recycling Materials to Create Fresh Water From Duck Water
This camp permitted the one kid signed up to explore ecological problem-solving and to create their own energy solutions using applied STEAM on a farm:
Designed a system to hold water and a drain for ducklings, sand for quail hatchlings, and diatomaceous earth for chickens all in one design with containers for each solution material
Designed and built a water purification system repurposing the water battery into a duck muck water water purifier using linen, grapevines, silicone, capillary action and solar powered pumps to return fresh water back to the main water tank while collecting duck muck solids for reuse on the farm
Created and hand wrote a short story and a series of haikus to explain the technology and processes they used to do the work
The MenTern for this camp was Amaya
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Life Below Water
Exploring Life Below Water and Keeping Cool
This camp stimulated kids to explore the ecological concept of an “atmosphere” as water. They were encouraged to refine the “upside-down” nature of O2 in water and use problem-solving to better understand what an important and valuable resource water is while using applied STEAM on a farm:
Explore the ways that the water cycle, the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle, and the oxygen cycle inevitable interact on this planet
Explore how and why water is such a critical resource for life on our planet, from hydration, to breathing, to delivering nutrients, to breaking down systems - this is why water is critical to all life
Introduce the fact that our planet is only 7% water, that less than 1% fresh and not locked up in ice, that all water on earth is roughly 4.5 Billion years old and water is endlessly recycled in a myriad of different interdependent systems and cycles
The MenTern for this camp was Theo, Oliver, Maxwell, and Harrison
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Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland Silver Award Ag Camp
Girl Scouts and Elementary kids teaching their parents about sustainability
The final camp at Mezzacello this summer was my MenTern, Amaya and her friend Tilly’s Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland Silver Award presentation of Kids and Agriculture. This program was designed, managed, and taught exclusively by Amaya and Tilly. Mezzacello Urban Farm served as host and Jim as advisor. The one week camp was a grand success and the kids (12 in total) LOVED it. I am very proud of Amaya and Tilly for showing such dedication, passion,and innovation to their project. And yes, they did win their Silver Badge Award.
Amaya and Tilly receiving their Silver Award pins and certificates with their two mentors
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