Photograph by Robert Scheer
Sienna Kurland, 5, shows off a butterfly she made at YSI's Sanborn Park Center.
By Ryan OzimekNine-year-old Vicky Whitehill put the finishing touches on a bubble machine that her group built against the redwood backdrop of Sanborn County Park, while a group of children just steps away added melted wax to long cotton strings, molding multicolored candles.
Like hundreds of kids from across the South Bay, Whitehill is taking part in the Youth Science Institute's (YSI) weekly summer camps that run until the end of August.
Founded in 1953, the private, nonprofit organization has provided science education to the young people of Santa Clara County through a more hands-on approach than is usually provided at local schools. Funded by city, county, private and corporate grants, the institute has created programs and exhibits designed to help youths interpret the world of science.
The institute was launched by the Junior League of San Jose and the National Science Foundation for Youth in order to give young students an opportunity to explore science outside of the classroom. By allowing school teachers to borrow specimens, slide shows, films and live animals, YSI has become a resource for science teachers.
With the support of teachers and families, too, the institute has grown during the past 20 years. Spreading from its original Alum Rock Park center in San Jose, the organization now has two additional centers at Sanborn County Park in Saratoga and Vasona County Park in Los Gatos. The three centers combined attract more than 65,000 youngsters each year.
Throughout this summer, both the Vasona and Sanborn centers have been filled to capacity, even with staff expansions. During an average week, the camps teach more than 140 children about their local environments, compared with about 100 a week last year. This comes as a great delight to Sanborn Park's YSI Nature Center Manager Andrea Liddie.
"The kids here are really having fun," Liddie said. "With science programs getting cut in schools, especially hands-on materials, we're giving the kids another chance to experience science."
Children at YSI camps enroll in weeklong sessions that focus on a particular aspect of science or nature. With titles from "Bugology" to "Fabulous Fibers," the camps offer a wide array of opportunities for kids to explore the nature that surrounds them.
"I like it here because I can invent things, like trucks and robots," camper Gabriel Arámbula said, while attending "Invention Convention" week at Sanborn Park.
"Most kids have used computers and read about different animals in books, but here we're giving them a chance to interact with those animals and the nature that they live in," Liddie said.
One of the main focuses of the institute is to allow youths to explore the environment in which they live, as opposed to the manmade environments seen in most zoos. For example, the Sanborn Park center displays many of the reptiles and insects found in the forest covered hills above Saratoga.
"Often, I find that many kids recognize the animals in zoos, yet they don't know what's in their own back yards," Liddie said.YSI's Sanborn Park center, 16055 Sanborn Road, is in the middle of 3,600 acres of redwood-covered hills. The camp's nature center is inside a 90-year-old, two-story house. Many of the rooms within the building have different themes relating to the environment, such as geology, arthropod and reptile rooms.
To show the value of the land's resources, day camps at Sanborn tend to focus on pioneering skills, such as spinning freshly grown cotton into thread or harvesting the camp's gardens. With a fully functioning kitchen, campers are able to cook the food they've helped harvest in the gardens.
"We're trying to get kids to think that if they were pioneers, where would they get their food, clothes and shelter, and how would they make those things?" Liddie said.
In May, the Sanborn center puts on its annual Insect Fair. During this event, displays are brought out for public viewing on a Saturday. Organizations such as the state's Food and Agricultural Department and San Jose State University's Entomology Department have been guests at the weeklong fair.
While the YSI Sanborn Center focuses on forest-related themes, the Vasona Center, with Lake Vasona just steps away, tends to concentrate more on aquatic animals and dinosaurs.
The Vasona Center, 296 Garden Hill Drive, has served the community since 1980 and displays many of the park's animals, including reptiles, amphibians, fish and other aquatic animals. Usually housing seven different groups of children each week, this discovery center is the busiest of the organization's summer locations.
"Even though Vasona is an urban park, it seems as though everyone wants to come here, probably because of its central location,' said Anne Dunham, executive director of the Vasona Center.
Just outside winds the Viola Anderson Native Plant Trail, offering views of the lake throughout the park. Officially opened to the public in 1982, the trail features 36 different plants native to the Bay Area. With a trail-and-plant guide in hand, visitors can walk the shade-covered trail year-round, although YSI officials recommend coming during their Wildflower Show in May, when the plants are in full bloom.
Although most of their business comes during the summer months, YSI's locations are open year-round. During the non-summer months, the organization is busy preparing for school field trips and group educational programs on a variety of topics for kindergartners through seventh-graders.
With the growth of interest in its summer camps, YSI has had no major financial problems during the summer months, but during the school year, a drop in school field trips is evident. Shrinking budgets have not only caused the schools to cut back on their own science departments, but also on field trips.
"The demand for schools to come here is there, but they just can't afford it any more," Liddie said. "To lend a hand, we've created sponsorships to help with costs."
Both the Sanborn and Vasona Nature Centers are open year-round, Mon. through Fri., 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Sunday during winter months).
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, August 28, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved