Every year, millions of youth attend camp programs. Camp is a powerful youth development setting and provides a natural place for science education and exploration, as the wonders of the world surround children. Camps often offer similar activities such as hikes, astronomy, compass use, fire building, and outdoor cooking to name a few. It is our goal to improve the educational quality of these camp favorites. Camp Activities With a Science Twist: Enhancing Your Camp Program With Fun STEM Experiences is designed to increase science interest, skills, abilities, and knowledge. It addresses critical needs to increase science literacy among today s youth, in a natural setting, where learning is disguised as fun! The curriculum scaffolds youth learning through a series of hands-on activities within a particular topic area. It is designed to enrich a variety of camp programs including day, resident, and science camps, as well as outdoor education programs. The sessions and activities can be used as stand-alone or in conjunction with others to build vertical and/ or horizontal progression within your camp program. The activities are generally appropriate for youth ages nine and older, though some activities target a more specific age range. Within each session the content is tied to the Next Generation Science Standards, and for each activity the science abilities targeted are outlined. As campers, counselors, camp staff, camp directors, and administrators, the authors sought to make these activities easy to use for youth and adult counselors alike. The curriculum was carefully written, tried, and tested in a variety of camp programs. Camper and camp staff input was instrumental in refining the activities to ensure that they are fun and engaging for the campers and help to develop critical science interest, skills, and abilities.
