The Virginia Institute of Marine Science will offer two one-day educational camps Wednesday, April 3, and Thursday, April 4, at Beaverdam Park in Gloucester.

This is the first time that VIMS has offered these "Make a Splash with Trash" camps, said Susan Maples-Luellen, VIMS outreach coordinator. Admission is free, she said, but each camp is limited to 20 students in grades 4-6.

Kattie McMillan, an outreach educator, will conduct the camps. Maples-Luellen said that hands-on activities and games will emphasize the dangers of litter, lost fishing gear, and other trash that might end up in waterways. Campers also will be shown ways they can help.

Recyclable items used in demonstrations will be transformed by the students into oyster costumes. They can wear the costumes, if they wish, on May 18 during the Parade of Marine Life at Marine Science Day on the VIMS campus at Gloucester Point.

Maples-Luellen said that VIMS saw offering the camps as "a good way for us to work w...