Nature's Classroom

OUR PROGRAM Our program is a 1-5 day residential outdoor education program for 4th - 8th grade students throughout the northeast, that focuses on environmental science, social emotional learning, and adventure education.

Our hands-on lessons allow students to process information using their critical thinking skills, collaboration and teamwork. Students engage with lessons through hands-on techniques, experiments, building challenge, or a game.

RELATIONSHIPS Nature’s Classroom is a place for students to build relationships with the natural world and explore ways to preserve it in their lives and community. We challenge students to grow into conscious stewards of the natural world. Our program also builds community through formal (team building and collaborative problem solving) and informal (communal living) interaction among peers and adults. 

CURRICULUM Our Curriculum is structured into 3 parts: Field Groups, Class Choice, and Evening Programs. Each part engages students, and also shows them that learning can be fun.

FIELD GROUPS The Field Group experience is a major part of the trip to Nature’s Classroom. During the Field Group activity, students go on short hikes to explore our forests, streams, swamps, or beaches. Students will learn about the natural world, and make connections with nature throughout the experience. Field Group is also a time for team-building games, where students will be asked to complete teamwork challenges. The teamwork skills necessary for a successful life will be developed, discussed, and reinforced throughout the trip.

CLASS CHOICE During our Special Interest class periods, the students choose which class they would like to attend. We offer a wide range of activities ranging from animal tracking, orienteering, lake ecology, wilderness survival, and animal dissections, with many more options available. The special interest classes allow students to find what interests them, and participate in those activities. Our lessons are packed with fun, hands-on activities, that show the fun side of learning.

EVENING ADVENTURES After dinner, students participate in our very popular evening programs.

Science Fair. The Science Fair allows students the chance to see a series of science demonstrations and experiments. We encourage the students to be scientists for the evening and ask questions, observe, form hypotheses, and be engaged with the instructors in the scientific method.

Night Hike. Our most exciting program, the Night Experience, is a hike into the woods at nighttime. Students learn about how their eyes work at night, play a game or two, sit silently in the woods, and do some star gazing. It’s the experience of a lifetime for many students.

Skit Night. Join us for a light-heart evening filled with entertaining skits and songs performed by instructors, teachers, chaperones, and students.

TEAM-BUILDING Throughout the week, students will be challenged to complete team building challenges. These challenges will help to develop the skills necessary to be a good teammate. Communication, trust, cooperation and commitment are just a few of the skills that students will experience.

Initiatives: There is a process by which instructors lead students through a series of activities. The initial team building activities are designed to show the importance of teamwork. The students may struggle with this at first, but they will overcome their obstacles and show true growth as a team. The instructors will debrief all teamwork activities to reinforce proper techniques and skills.

Low Ropes: Once students have shown their instructor that they can be “trusted”, they move onto more challenging team building activities. Our low ropes course offers students a chance to challenge themselves in new ways. With elements that involve swinging, climbing, lifting, and spotting, students will be challenged and forced to work together.

PHYSICAL SCIENCE Using interactive, hands-on lessons, students will have the opportunity to experience chemical properties and reactions, as well as forces of motion and their interactions. Students learn about the structure and properties of matter. There are also classes on energy transfer and conservation.

EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE Our student-scientists investigate the scale and properties of objects in the solar system, as well as how the earth's history was shaped by geologic processes. They also explore the interconnectivity of earth's spheres, and our human impacts on earth and its resources.

ENGINEERING This fun and hands-on section explores different engineering processes, including solving a design problem within given criteria and constraints. Students will also evaluate the integrity of multiple design solutions, control variables, and analyze the results from different tests.

LIFE SCIENCE Students explore the structure and processes of organisms, as well as investigate matter and energy transfer in organisms and ecosystems. The natural outdoor laboratory is perfect for studying cause and effect relationships in ecosystems and adaptations and species diversity.