Outdoor Education at Camp: Enriching Lives through Positive Interactions with Nature

Thomas Bawdwen
July 2019
originally published on ACACamps.org

In an increasingly connected world, today’s children experience an ever-decreasing connection to the natural world. As a result of hours of screen time, lengthening school days, and increasing participation in organized out-of-school activities, children are spending less time outside than ever before. Because of this lack of outdoor time, their connection to and understanding of their natural surroundings is startlingly absent.

With proven positive impacts of spending time outdoors, it is undeniable that increasing children’s engagement with their natural world should be a priority. Camps are uniquely poised to provide children with a high-quality, engaging experience outdoors that will equip them with the skills, mindset, and passion to continue their natural exploration when they leave camp property. With limited time and resources, it is imperative that camp staff maximize the time they have to share their passion for nature with their campers.

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An outdoor education experience must do more than simply provide a camper with information about their surroundings. Ideally, an experience will leave a camper with the following outcomes:

• A kindled passion for exploring nature
• Skills, tools, and knowledge necessary for successful immersion in nature
• An understanding of basic environmental stewardship principles
• Elements of character development

To accomplish these outcomes, an effective outdoor learning experience should be outcomes-based. Not every piece of the campers’ experience will meet all four outcomes, but the aggregate of their experience should meet all the outcomes for it to be effective in reconnecting campers with nature and outdoor play.
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This guide to effective outdoor education explores each of these four outcomes and provides methods to achieving them. Because no guide is comprehensive, this represents a starting point from which a camp program focused on nature can be devised or a training program implemented.

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Read the full article on the American Camp Association website.