Campers create robots to defend the planet from polluters

This year, for the first time, Ijams has two summer camps going simultaneously. Outdoor Adventure Camp is for the older kids: grades four through eight. Ijams is partnering with the Tennessee Valley Boys & Girls Club, River Sports Outfitters and others to make this camp possible. The activities are centered around Mead's Quarry and the nearby lake and trails.

At the Visitor Center and Plaza and their network of trails and ponds, the traditional Ijams Nature Day Camp is in full swing. This camp is for the younger kids: kindergarten through early fourth primarily.  

Recently the Nature Day Camp featured a week of Kid Concoctions and Contraptions for Ages 7-9 (Entering Grades 2-4).  It was five days of slimy, bouncy, squishy, shiny, glowing, sticky, tasty, glittery, the possibilities were endless. 

Campers grew their own crystals, discovered a substance that is both solid and liquid, found out how to make bubbles bounce, and much more. 

One afternoon they created robot costumes out of totally recycled materials. The nature robots mission? To protect the Earth from polluters. Of, course!

- Story and photos Stephen Lyn Bales

Ijams Hiking Club explores Burnett Ridge in Urban Wilderness

The Ijams Hiking Club tackling the 40-plus miles of the South Loop piece-by-piece had a woodsy time in June. We explored Burnett Ridge on the south side of the old Ross Marble Quarry part of the Knoxville Urban Wilderness: South Loop network of trails, first climbing up and over the ridge itself, at times along the cliff, and then returning to our cars parked on Aberdeen. Volunteer Eric Johnson (fourth from right above) scouts our hikes each month and leads the way. This is one of the newer sections of the South Loop network, a good climb made easier by several switchbacks. Our hike went from the Burnett Ridge Trail to Turnbuckle, then Imerys and back to Burnett Ridge. 

This was the six hike in the Saturday series designed to walk all the trails in both the South Loop and Battlefield Loop. And when we hike them all, we're going to start all over, so join us. 

Next up: this Saturday, July 12, 8:00 a.m. we'll explore Forks of the River Wildlife Management Area and its fields of sunflowers!

To register call (865) 577-4717, ext. 110. We'll meet at the Visitor Center and drive to our starting point. 

See you there.  

- Stephen Lyn Bales. Photos by Vickie Henderson.  

Spirits high at Fourth Annual Meadow Lark Music Festival

The intermittent lightest of showers didn’t dampen the spirits of hundreds of Meadow Lark Music Festival attendees on June 28. It just made the event even cooler.

The music kicked off promptly at 1 p.m. and continued late into the evening. Six hours of live music. St. Paul and the Broken Bones along with The Black Cadillacs headlined the Fourth annual partnership between Ijams Nature Center and WDVX.

Many thanks to this year’s sponsors: New Belgium Brewing, Teri Productions, WBIR, Mortgage Investors Group, Elizabeth Eason Architecture, Knox Music Today, Fagan Jewelers, the Tomato Head, The Round-Up Restaurant, Three Rivers Market, Computer Systems Plus, and Patrick Beasley Landscape and Garden Services. 

Plans are already in the works for Meadow Lark 2015.

If one photo is worth a thousand words, here's a few thousand.

- Story Sabrina DeVault. Photos Jennifer Roder.

TN Naturalist @ Ijams class spend a day with the herps

The fourth TN Naturalist @ Ijams 
class of 2014 was last month.
 

Hurray for Herps was the topic de jour. Ijams' vet Dr. Louise Conrad taught the reptile portion in the morning and after a break for lunch, naturalist Stephen Lyn lead the group on a search for amphibians in the many ponds at the nature center.

This is the second year Ijams has been a part of the now statewide series of Tennessee Naturalists classes. After 40 hours of instruction and 40 hours of volunteering, participants will become certified Tennessee naturalists.

The next class is Aquatic Systems and a walk through the waters of Toll Creek on the eastern border of the nature center.

-Photos by Billie Cantwell and Bob Davis

Outdoor Adventure Camp: the s'more the merrier: Week 4

Ijams' Outdoor Adventure Camp is a lively mix of old school and new. There's arm wrestling and chest bumps; lake swimming and paddle-boards; watermelon and s'mores.  (S'more is old school. The first recorded version of the recipe can be found in "Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts" published in 1927.) And as we all know, any day is a good day with s'mores.

We discovered early that when you do so many activities outside, the kids need to eat a lot; and some of the best food is cooked over a campfire—summertime bill of fair like roasted hot dawwwwgs and the s'mores, plus the perennial favorite watermelon. 

Week four was reserved for the kids from Haslam Boys & Girls Club from North Knoxville.

Outdoor Adventure Camp is made possible with the help of these generous partners:

          • West Knoxville Sertoma Club 

          • Boys and Girls Club of the Tennessee Valley 

          • Grassroots Outdoor Alliance 

          • Horny Toad Activewear 

          • Pelican International 

           • River Sports Outfitters

Additional food and funding provided by:

          • South Knoxville Alliance  

Ijams offers camp scholarships for kids in traditionally under-served communities. After the first four weeks we've seen kids from Walter P. Taylor, Western Heights, Middlebrook, North Ridge Crossing and Haslam Boys and Girls Clubs.

Here's some highlights of week four:

- By Jennifer Roder, Stephen Lyn Bales. Photos Katie Plank and Rex McDaniel.

Chest bump!

We are MIGHTY!

Balance is the key

Lunch time

Three dawgs at a time seemed the entrée du jour.

Can I borrow this chip? You're not using it.

S'more, s'more, s'more the merrier.

Best melon grin ever!

Resting and digesting

Until the arm wrestling tournament.

Strategies for beating Chris: Out charm him.

Out stare him

Out grimace him

Out man him

Back to the water

The Ijams Armada

First solo paddle

Solo makes it across the lake with the support of a watchful pair of eyes

Outdoor Adventure Camp!  A look back.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3 

And a thank you to the South Knoxville Alliance