Our camps for 2024 

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Registration for 2024 camps will open in early January and they will likely fill by early February. 

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The Junior Entomology Academy promotes the education of entomology for kids ages 6 – 10 years-old. Our mission is to inspire a love of bugs in the next generation of entomologists, to assist in their education, and provide resources for improving their knowledge. We do this through our annual Bug Camp events and our traveling arthropod show. Our goal is to educate passionate young entomologists on all aspects of entomology, from keeping a collection, insect husbandry, insect classification, insect ecology, and eating insects as a food source.  The summer bug camps will now be run through our new nonprofit Biodiversity Outreach Network (BON). The personnel have not changed and this will allow us to expand all of our biodiversity outreach efforts. We will continue our camps at Willow Bend in Flagstaff, Arizona and continue to promote workforce development through hiring promising students from middle school through graduate students across the country.

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If creepy crawlers fascinate your child, then the summer bug camp is an ideal summer activity. If your child falls outside of this age range please contact us, we do make exceptions for children who really love working with bugs. Campers will learn about insect natural history and biodiversity through a series of fun project and activities. Campers collect insects and create their own insect collection, build their own bug, and we finish the week with by preparing and sharing insect cuisine with invited family members and friends. 

 

We will plan three in-person bug camps in summer 2024. The first camp will be hosted at the Museum of Northern Arizona (MNA) and the second two camps will be hosted at Willow Bend Environmental Center. All sessions will be capped at 24 campers. All camps cover the same material and engage in the same activities. Since a lot of time is spent outside the only difference between camps will be weather, so lightning is more prevalent later in the summer.

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Note that each week has the same set of activities, material, and "bug collection" routines  - campers typically just attend one week per summer, as there is little variation between sessions. For the 2024 camps a teacher at Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy will be filming a documentary about the camps during the two Willow Bend Camps. If you have concerns about your camper(s) being in the documentary, please let us know.

 

Camp 1: June 24th - June 28th (hosted at Museum of Northern AZ (MNA) Tentative

Camp  2: July 8th - July 12th (hosted at Willow Bend Environmental Center) Tentative

Camp 3: July 15th - July 19th (hosted at Willow Bend Environmental Center)  Tentative

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Please contact Neil Cobb at 928-607-4075 (neilscobb@gmail.com) for further information or if you would like to be added to a waitlist once the camps are full.

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Lily Davis and Jackie Garver will be leading the camps next summer and both are experienced in teaching in-person under Covid-19 compliance. Lily and Jackie are elementary school teachers in Chicago and Flagstaff, respectively. Both women have extensive experience with in-person teaching throughout the academic year during Covid times, and are experts at helping young children practice social distancing and carry out indoor mask use. We also have nine amazing young Junior Counselors (ages 12-16). Campers will be organized into groups of 4-5 and each group will have 1-2 counselors that help them on projects.

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Fees & Scholarships​

The fee for each of the 2023 Summer Bug Camps is $350 per child. Willow Bend sponsors and MNA members will receive a $25 discount per child when they register before June 1 for the June camps and before July 1 for the July camp.

 

We have support for two scholarships for summer 2024 for families that fall under Flagstaff mean annual income. Please email Neil at neilscobb@gmail.com if you would like a scholarship application. The deadline for this application is May 1st, 2024, and we can only offer one scholarship per family. We have reserved scholarship spots for any of the camps, so please let us know which camp week would work best for your family.  

 

​Registration & Camp Information

The registration link has been temporarily removed until registration starts.

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General

Camp runs Monday - Friday

Hours are 9:00am - 4:00pm, EXCEPT on Friday, it ends at 3:00pm-ish!

 

This is because we have a "bug feast" and "entomology awards" that all parents are encouraged to attend (on that Friday, starting around 2pm-ish)

 

Therefore camp tends to finish up around 3pm that day (not 4pm).

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All campers are responsible for bringing their own snacks and water bottles, and there will be no food sharing (unless between siblings). Each child will receive their own box of pinning/collecting supplies and their own pollinator net to use for the entire length of the camp. 

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This is the perfect opportunity for your child to delve into the wonders of entomology and learn about insects, entomological collecting techniques, proper curation, insect anatomy, life cycles, insect husbandry, and interesting facts about insects and other arthropods. The week concludes with entomophagy, a bug feast, where kids and parents are invited to try gourmet insect cuisine. We pride ourselves in entomology education for kids taught by real-life entomologists.   

 

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