Galveston Bay
Project for Girls

Summer 2000

The Galveston Bay Project for Girls is a two-week science summer day camp that annually serves 60 female students recruited from eight area middle schools in HISD. Instruction focuses on the biological and ecological characteristics of nearby Galveston Bay. Field explorations, computer technology and research skills are emphasized in this program. Female scientists are featured as guest speakers.

Ms. Riggins, a Math major at Rice University came to speak with the girls about career options and how to prepare for college.

The girls rotated through four classes that covered different aspects of Galveston Bay.
Ms. Niedzielski - water testing, field data collection, fish printing...
Mrs. Gomez - bird adaptations, animal track casting and identfication...
Mrs. Kuhlken - squid dissection, marine organism identification, creating clay animal models...
Mrs. Farra - ocean floor spreading, coastline, oil spill demonstration...

Student Journals: each day girls wrote about the activities and new experiences they had.

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Each year the girls travel to Galveston.

Their first stop was at East Beach where they tested water (salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, water temperature...), went crabbing, and worked on a scavenger hunt identifying birds, animal tracks, hermit crabs, catfish skulls, shells (lightning whelk, scallop, oyster...), and collecting trash to protect animals in the area.


Their next stop was at the Galveston Harbor Tour - a two hour boat trip where girls assisted in a plankton pull (right) , dolphin watch, specimen collection of crabs, shrimp, jellyfish, and visited a bird hatchery of brown pelicans.

(below) Lastly the girls went to see the
Kemp Ridley Turtles on the Texas A&M Campus.

 

 

 

Turtle Links: Sea Turtles, Kemp Ridley Turtles,
Kemp Ridley Turtles, Plight of the Kemp Ridley Turtle

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