Becoming an Explorer at Burke Museum Summer Camps
Summer is a time of exploration. As a child, the world opened up to me in the summer, shifting my perspective of routine occurrences into fantastic escapades. That Saturday stroll on just another dirt path turned into a wilderness adventure, and trips to the museum filled with static junk turned into a quest for hidden meaning in peculiar treasures.
Now, as an adult responsible for planning the summer camps at the Burke Museum, I work hard to facilitate experiences that encourages this excitement for exploration and intense curiosity that seems to blossom as soon as the teachers say “goodbye” in June. Whether that means challenging kids to build a boat out of found materials or seeking out fossil mysteries around the museum, I try to make the museum objects come to life and create a unique learning experience.
We have a variety of camps for different ages, ranging from kindergarten to eighth grade. Subjects include archeology, earthquakes, and the Ice Age. Do you have a future forensic investigator on your hands? There’s a camp for that. Does your daughter like all-things STEM? Sign her up for “Girls in Science.” Camps are both half-day and full day, and you can combine two half-day camps to entertain your kids until 4:15 p.m. (there’s also extended daycare until 5:30 p.m. in some cases). Find out more on the camp page.
As I plan out our camps, I try to channel that inner thirst for knowledge that has driven me to a greater understanding of the world around me. My inner five-year-old gets giddy as I plan out our “Dinos” camps with opportunities to step into the role of a paleontologist and dig up fossils. And I am happy to bring my passion for music into the camps this year with our “Songs of the Pacific” camp, to share the breadth of rhythms, harmonies, and instrumental variations from across the Pacific Ocean (and dance to a little music too!). I hope that the Burke Museum’s Summer Camps will be just another one of your child’s golden coins in their mind’s treasure chest.
Dylan High is the out-of-school programs coordinator at the Burke Museum. When Dylan isn’t stewing up plans to get kids excited about the Burke, he is probably out riding his bike around Seattle looking for beautiful views or writing songs about dinosaurs.