Kids, many who live thousands of miles from Hawaii, will have the opportunity to explore Hawaii Volcanoes National Park today via the new online “Camp Google” experience.
Kids, many who live thousands of miles from Hawaii, will have the opportunity to explore Hawaii Volcanoes National Park today via the new online “Camp Google” experience.
The free, one-hour camp will debut during Google’s Nature Week at 9 a.m. Hawaii time (noon Pacific/3 p.m. Eastern) today. The link to Camp Google is camp.withgoogle.com. Camp Google is full of fun science activities and adventures, and is geared towards keiki (children) ages 7-10. It’s open to all ages and children do not have to register or have a Google account to participate.
“As the National Park Service and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park step into our next 100 years of caring for America’s special places, the No. 1 goal for our 2016 centennial is to connect with and create the next generation of park visitors, supporters and advocates,” said Park Superintendent Cindy Orlando.
The timing for Camp Google is ideal, Orlando said, because of the coming launch of the “Every Kid in a Park” initiative, which invites all American fourth-graders and their families to visit national parks and public lands for free. Camp Google will share Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to families and kids across the country, potentially inspiring them to visit Hawaii.
Google launched its first camp adventure with National Geographic explorers Sylvia Earle and Erika Bergman in mid-July. Kids plunged into the Atlantic Ocean via a remotely operated vehicle, and watched as filefish, lionfish, corals and other marine life came into view. Last week, kids found out what astronauts eat and helped create new space food with NASA astronaut Don Pettit.
The Nature Week segment, filmed entirely on location in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, is co-hosted by Park Ranger Rebecca Carvalho, USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientist Don Swanson and Derek Muller, the creative director of Veritasium, a popular online science video channel. Keiki will learn how Hawaiian volcanoes, culture and biology are woven together by visiting Kilauea overlook, Thurston lava tube and steam vents, and observing Kilauea volcano’s summit eruption at Halema‘uma‘u Crater.
Like Ocean Week and Space Week, the Nature Week segment will be available on the Camp Google website, so kids who can’t join in on Wednesday can participate at another time.