Episode 46: Camp Big Springs with Bill Sprunger

July 4th, 2024 /
Alexander Glaves /

Sup with the Sup

00:00 / 14:35

Welcome everyone to the next episode of Provo City School District’s What’s Up With The Sup’ podcast. I am Superintendent Wendy Dau. I am excited for our podcast this week, but first let’s go over our updates.

June 3rd through July 18th, our district provides free summer meals. Children ages 1 through 18 that live in Provo can receive a free breakfast and free lunch. Visit Franklin, Provo Peaks, Spring Creek, Sunset View, Timpanogos Elementary Schools, or Independence or Provo High Schools, whichever school you live closest to, Monday through Thursday for a free meal. Visit our website for times and details.
If you are interested in hearing updates regarding the construction projects happening throughout the district, please visit the district website and click on the new construction newsletter sign up link.
Watch for the summer newsletter coming to your home in Provo the first part of July. For complete updates during the summer, visit us on our website or on social media.

On this week’s podcast, I got to go up to Camp Big Springs and visit with the kids and see all of the fun classes that they get to participate in during their week of campouts. I got to also speak with Camp Director, Bill Sprunger as he explained lots of the different activities that the kids get to participate in.

So let’s have a listen as to what’s going on at Camp Big Springs.

Bill Sprunger: Yep, the class that was coming up the road, they’re doing the scale of the solar system.

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Bill Sprunger: And that’s a sixth grade core, science subject anyway. So, they’re making their way by steps, by number of steps as they go through the solar system and our sun is right here. We have a telescope set up for that with a solar filter and they, they looked at the sun to start with its sunspots today and it’s just, it’s really cool. A cool experience for them.

And they’ve been walking off the rest of the solar system.

Wendy Dau: Okay, so they can see how far away each of the planets are from this particular location.

Bill Sprunger: Yeah, that relative distance is a big thing in the, in the sixth grade core.

Wendy Dau: Yeah, no, that’s great. That’s awesome. So tell me what’s happening in this class over here.

Bill Sprunger: This is Kim Sessions, and she’s a fourth grade teacher at Westridge. Just a wonderful teacher, and she’s doing a prey and predator relationships class, which is also in sixth grade core.

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Bill Sprunger: She’s working with their student journals. So their class materials are in a student journal and they have a little pen and a little backpack and they carry this stuff around to classes with them and they take notes and mark stuff down and do activities and draw and then eventually she’ll lead them into the forest. They play a little prey predator game that’s straight, straight from our sixth grade resources.

Wendy Dau: That’s really cool.

Bill Sprunger: It’s great.

Wendy Dau: That’s awesome.

Bill Sprunger: So they have a great time.

Wendy Dau: Oh, I love that. Okay. What’s down here?

Bill Sprunger: Down here is our birds of prey class.

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Bill Sprunger: This is Elizabeth Gregory. She teaches math at Provo High.

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Bill Sprunger: And she’s one of our teachers. This is her second year. And, uh she’s, fantastic. She’s leading them through comparing and contrasting the different…

Wendy Dau: I just got, I just got a copy of this journal. This is amazing. Okay. Anyway, keep going. And then I’ll talk about this journal.

Bill Sprunger: Oh yeah. She’s leading them through kind of the comparing and contrasting the different predator birds. And then she’s going to then dissect owl pellets at the end to see what’s in them.

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Bill Sprunger: And so they, they have, uh, bone charts where they can find which bones are which animals and they can they can actually tell which skull is a bird skull And which skull is a rodent skull and and they can identify jaw bones and hip bones and all sorts of stuff like that. So, so they love it.

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Bill Sprunger: This is a fun one

Wendy Dau: So then tell me a little bit about

Bill Sprunger: So the journal is each teacher has kind of given us some Materials that we use for classes and some teachers just need a few empty pages to draw and take notes in. But yeah, we have some fun things in here, like our-

Wendy Dau: You have your menu.

Bill Sprunger: We have the words to all of our camp songs. We have, the kids love to just sit and look through their journals during their free time.

Wendy Dau: And you guys have some really good food.

Bill Sprunger: It’s been wonderful to work with Timpview’s kitchen. They help us with our food and, and uh, so we have an astronomy, there’s our astronomy class.

Wendy Dau: What are all the different science things, model planet cards. Okay. Okay. Birds of prey. Okay. That’s, yep. Okay. And I hear kids being very excited.

Bill Sprunger: If you’ll come back up here you’ll see them, actually.

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Bill Sprunger: So our ecosystems class is studying the difference between the south slope and and the north slope of camp.

Wendy Dau: Okay. There they are. Okay.

Bill Sprunger: So they like to call out to us while we’re down here.

Wendy Dau: Holy cow. They’re way up there.

Bill Sprunger: They hiked up there.

Wendy Dau: They’re way up in the weeds.

Bill Sprunger: They look at the scrub oak and the rocky mountain maple on this side, then they look at the conifers on this side and they and they talk about the differences.

Wendy Dau: And why do we have different trees on different sides?

Bill Sprunger: Well, kind of depending on how much light they get and how much, how much moisture will hold in the soil.

So this side’s really dry. And, and so we have lots of lizards and snakes and we have, uh, our state flowers up there. Even, uh, the sego lily is up there and, and we had all the dry type of plants are on this hillside.

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Bill Sprunger: And this hillside is just beautiful ferns and

Wendy Dau: Yeah

Bill Sprunger: conifers and lots of water. And-

Wendy Dau: and that’s because that’s where the water is?

Bill Sprunger: Yeah. So they do a little, little, uh, comparing the ecosystems classes, and then they hike all the way up there, which is a lot of fun.

Wendy Dau: That is really fun.

Bill Sprunger: That’s, let’s see, one more class here that you might Okay. Yeah. Uh, is close, at least is our engineering design class.

Wendy Dau: Oh, good.

Bill Sprunger: So he wants to tackle, uh, a modern problem.

So he’s taken a look at the microplastics, the problems with microplastics in our waters, and he is having the class use practical materials and some.

Wendy Dau: Hi, how are you? Good, how are you?

Bill Sprunger: Jim, do you want to take a second just explain what they’re doing.

Jim: No. I want the kids to.

Wendy Dau: Oh, then let’s do that. That’s great.

Jim: Yeah, were you paying attention? This is a real test on me. Ask the kids.

Student: We’re doing a problem solving thing on micro plastics in like the oceans and stuff. And so we’re using the river as our fake ocean and we’re using little weed, like, leaf things that we’re going to put in and so we’re trying to make a machine that will catch all of those and it has to be stable. It has to catch a lot and it has to be maneuverable.

Wendy Dau: Very cool.

Student: Oh yeah, and then it has to get down really deep because the ocean’s deep and the river’s deep.

Wendy Dau: Cool. How have you guys liked camp so far? Awesome. Love it, that’s great. Dangerous pond monster. Get staff members to fetch lost balls. I love it. That is a clever sign.

So tell us your name.

Camp Counselor: My name is Emmie.

Wendy Dau: And, um, how old are you? Is this your first time being, um, camp staff?

Camp Counselor: Uh, yeah, it is my first time being camp staff. I am 16.

Wendy Dau: Awesome.

Camp Counselor: And I was a student of Tori’s from accounting class.

Wendy Dau: Yes!

Camp Counselor: And it has been an amazing experience. I have learned boondoggling. It’s been really fun.

The kids, they can get a little crazy at times, but they really love it up here, and I love it too. And it’s, it’s great, because I think it’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. Because this pine forest is unlike anything in Utah.

Wendy Dau: What’s been the best part about being with the kids? Like, what have you learned about them and about how, what are they the most excited about?

Camp Counselor: It’s really like restored a lot of my faith in the next generation. They’re kind of like an enigma. I was like, Oh no, are they going to be okay? Because like, I imagine them as not being very smart.

Wendy Dau: We always think that about the younger generation, right? We’re like, oh man.

Camp Counselor: But, but they’ve been like, they’ve come up to me. We’ve had a great time.

I’ve seen them shine in their different aspects, like the kids that play mushball. They, I see their fun athletic prowess and all of the kids who love to boondoggle. I can see their brains working to try and figure out the knots. And I sit on in on some of the classes and there’s like a bunch of kids that are super excited about nature. And the kids that catch the bugs and name them, it’s, it’s adorable. They’re so great.

Wendy Dau: So we’re seeing kids being really super excited about learning and science and all of those pieces. That’s awesome. Tell me your name.

Student: Trigg.

Wendy Dau: And what school do you go to, Trigg?

Student: Uh, Wasatch Elementary.

Wendy Dau: Wasatch Elementary. Awesome. What have you been learning about today?

Student: Um, today, I’ve been learning about, so my first class I learned about how, um, about ecosystems and right now I just learned about edible plants and poisonous plants.

Wendy Dau: Okay, and what’s been the best part about Camp Big Springs?

Student: Um, I would say the mushball or the zip line.

Wendy Dau: Okay, mushball or the zip line. How have you liked the food? Has the food been good?

Student: Yeah.

Wendy Dau: Yes! What’s been your favorite thing so far?

Student: Apple juice.

Wendy Dau: Apple juice

Student: Frozen apple juice.

Wendy Dau: Oh, frozen apple juice.

Student: It’s frozen. So I like the apple juice.

Wendy Dau: It’s frozen. That’s good. What are you most looking forward to? You have more activities this week, so-

Student: What I’m most looking forward to is finding things in the river or going on the seven mile hike.

Wendy Dau: Okay. You’re looking forward to a seven mile hike?

Student: Or playing playing the teachers in mushball.

Wendy Dau: Oh, so you have like a student versus teacher mushball tournament.

Student: Yes.

Wendy Dau: And you’re going to win, aren’t you?

Student: Yes.

Wendy Dau: Yes. I can’t wait to hear about that. So you have been to two classes so far. What’s your next class?

Student: My next class? I don’t know.

Wendy Dau: You don’t know. You’re just going to go where they tell you to go.

Student: Yes.

Wendy Dau: That’s awesome. Would you tell, um, next year’s fifth graders to come to Camp Big Springs?

Student: Yes.

Wendy Dau: Yes. Awesome. Well, thank you. It’s nice to meet you, Trigg.

Bill Sprunger: Well guys, you know all your plants? What was your favorite plant?

Student: Pine Needles. The mint-

Bill Sprunger: Mint, pine needles-

Student: And miner’s lettuce.

Wendy Dau: Pine needles actually taste good?

Bill Sprunger: Were you able to find any onions of the alliums?

Student: No, we also found some strawberries.

Bill Sprunger: Oh, you found some wild strawberry.

Wendy Dau: Oh, are you gonna make me taste something gross? Okay, okay.

Tell me about what it tastes like again.

Student: Um, so the miner’s lettuce kind of tastes like that, like butter. The butter lettuce.

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Camp Counselor: Okay.

Student: Right here.

Wendy Dau: Oh, look at that.

Camp Counselor: And what do we do first?

Student: Uh, blow it to make sure that there’s no bugs on it.

Camp Counselor: And you can even eat the little flower inside.

Wendy Dau: I can eat the flower inside. I can put the whole thing in my mouth.

Student: Yeah, the whole thing, even the stem.

Wendy Dau: Are you sure? Yeah, not teasing me.

Student: No, we did that today already at least once.

Wendy Dau: All right. Oh, it does taste like butter lettuce.

Camp Counselor: A little bit like spinach.

Wendy Dau: Yes, it does taste like, yeah, arugula and spinach. Wow, I had no idea.

Camp Counselor: And it is all over out here for about another three or four weeks, and then it kind of dies off, and then we’ll come back in the fall.

Wendy Dau: I had no idea. Oh my gosh, do you guys feel so smart that you now can go on hikes and stuff and be like you can eat that, you can eat that, you can eat that.

Student: Especially if you’re in a pine forest and you’re like lost, you can just eat the pine needles.

Wendy Dau: You can eat the pine needles, I’m gonna remember that.

Student: Except for the old ones. Like the ones on the tips are, like, green.

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Camp Counselor: I’m so proud of you guys, you’ve listened to me.

Wendy Dau: Yay! There’s so much learning. I love it.

Camp Counselor: Yeah, if you guys want to grab one more piece of miner’s lettuce before we head back, that’d be great.

Wendy Dau: Describe what, describe what you found.

Student: Um, this is what me and him found.

Okay. Yeah, we basically found a whole entire head, a jaw, and all the teeth pretty much. Yeah, we can make a whole body if we want. There was the whole skull and then there was like, yeah, we found, we found the thingy. Yeah, we found that, that, and the other parts of it.

Wendy Dau: So you’re able to point out what, what animal it was.

Student: Yeah. I’m pretty sure it was the rodent.

Wendy Dau: The rodent.

Student: Okay. So it’s this right here is the skull and these two are the two, um, jaws on the side is to make the rodent. The rodent head. You found a lot of stuff.

Wendy Dau: You did find a lot of stuff.

Student: You have a whole bunch of bones right here. There’s just a whole bunch of like, bones, like hip bones, and like front legs, back legs, and like ribs. We have a whole bunch of other bones too.

Wendy Dau: Do you feel like they came from the same animal or different animals?

Student: Well, most of these, most of these I think would be the same. Cause they come here. Alright, that’s awesome.

Wendy Dau: Alright, that’s awesome. Thanks guys!

Thank you everyone for joining me for this week’s episode of What’s Up with the Sup’.

As always, all episodes will be posted on the district website.

YouTube, and anywhere you get your podcasts. If you have any topics or questions you would like us to discuss on the podcast, please email us at podcast@provo.edu. Join me next week for an all-new episode. Have a great week, everyone.