Camp turns out thinkers of deep

Although children get a vacation from school during the summer

months, that doesn’t mean they stop learning.

Every summer, Mountain and Sea Adventures holds weeklong science

day camps at the Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort. Children ages 5 to

12 learn about marine biology in a hands-on setting, and each session

has a different theme. This week is sharks and rays week.

“The favorite thing is usually the activities -- and learning that

sharks aren’t what everybody thinks they are,” said program director

Eli Garnier.

The instructors expected shark week to attract the highest

enrollment, so next week will repeat the sharks and rays theme.

But as it turns out, Garnier said, “This summer, our biggest week

was crustaceans week.”

The camp, which is held Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3

p.m., starts each morning with a lesson. Each camper has a workbook

and participates in interactive activities with the counselors.

The students are divided into groups, which rotate throughout the

day through different hands-on stations. They experience such things

as mud-sifting, a live-touch tank and boat rides in the Back Bay.

The counselors review the information they teach to the children

by doing a daily “candy quiz.”

“At the end of the day, our last thing is asking questions from

the activities, and whoever gets it right gets a piece of candy,”

Garnier said. “It’s good for the parents, because we do it while the

parents are picking them up, so they get to see what their kids are

learning.”

Garnier added that they hire mainly college graduates as

counselors because the marine biology instruction is pretty intense.

“We have a lot of kids that come to this camp because they’re nuts

about marine biology,” he said. “We get to learn from them sometimes

also.”

Blake Altenberg, 10, of Santa Ana, said he came to the camp

because he loves to read about sharks and squids and is fascinated by

ocean life. He said his family got a flier in the mail about the camp

and it was his idea to sign up.

Garnier said many campers attend multiple weeks, and some come

back year after year.

“I’ve been here this year and last year, said Jennifer Wetton, 6,

of Newport Beach. “It’s really fun, because you get to do candy quiz,

and you get to do all sorts of cool stuff. We learn about sharks and

fish and starfish.”

The program’s mission is to educate children about biology and

ecology, while also building an awareness of the environment. On

Friday, the campers walk the beach, picking up trash as they go.

Mountain and Sea Adventures, which is based on Catalina Island,

began as a school-year program for educational field trips, Garnier

said. The summer camps started three years ago, with the day camp at

the Dunes and a Catalina Island camp, where kids stay the entire

week.

For more information on Mountain Science Adventures, call (310)

510-2695 or visit o7www.mountainandsea.org.f7

* LINDSAY SANDHAM is the news assistant. She can be reached at

(714) 966-4625 or lindsay.sandham@latimes.com.