At the core of your student experience, our Outdoor Education Curricula & Activities are designed to meet your classroom objectives and are primarily targeted towards elementary grades. Lessons can be tailored to meet the needs of your students and can be modified to fit your goals and specific student grade levels. Review our options below and work with us to plan your ideal camp experience!
Environmental Science Curricula
Forest Ecology
Students explore the cycles and systems of forests in the Pacific Northwest. Activities illustrate the diversity and interdependence of elements including soil, water, habitat, wildlife, and vegetation as well as showcase native Pacific Northwest plants.
Student ecologists will learn to describe the characteristics of a producer, consumer, and decomposer and model a basic food web that shows relationships between producers, consumers, and decomposers.
Wildlife Ecology
Students learn about different kinds of wildlife that live in the Pacific Northwest and what their role is in their ecosystem. Activities involve learning about food webs, adaptations, population dynamics, and animal tracking using footprints and scat. Students will learn to define adaptation and describe how different adaptations help animals live in their ecosystem.
Marine Ecology
The cold marine waters of Puget Sound and the Washington Coast are some of the most productive in the world. Study the intricacies of an aquatic environment and how they might compare to life and systems on land. Students examine intertidal invertebrates on the beach at low tide, collect and examine plankton, and learn about moon phases and tidal zones.
Student ecologists will learn to define habitat and describe what an organism needs to live and grow in its habitat and describe the different tidal zones on a beach and give examples of organisms that live in those tidal zones.
Wetlands Ecology
Students explore the diversity and dynamics of a wetland site. This class focuses on the interdependence of elements found in a wetland habitat. Build a watershed, identify wetland indicators, do stream studies, and discuss the role of wetlands in bird migrations and habitat.
Student ecologists will learn to describe the definition of a watershed and how water moves through one and to describe methods by which we can determine the health of our ecosystem.
Soil Ecology
Forests would not be able to function without hard-working decomposers returning nutrients to the soil. Using both our camp garden and the forest as examples, students learn about plant growth, decomposition, and soil ecology. Activities may include exploring and working in the garden, plant biology, decomposer scavenger hunts, and helping maintain our worm bin. Students will learn to describe a basic nutrient and energy cycle in an ecosystem and to describe what resources and conditions a plant needs in order to live and grow.
Astronomy
Our Star Lab is a great place for students to start their exploration of the universe including activities involving our solar system, constellations, moon phases, and tides. Students will also hear stories behind the constellations from around the world. Learning Objectives include describing the different planets in our solar system and how the moon affects our tidal cycle on Earth.
Team Building
Ground Initiatives
Students participate in field game-style team building activities and challenges that can help them get to know each other better as well as introduce them to basic team building and leadership skills.
Low Ropes Course
The low ropes course is a tool for continued team-building, individual confidence building, and fostering good communication in a group of people (usually done after completing initiatives). Facilitators balance fun, teamwork, and learning through a series of physical and mental activities.
Bouldering Wall
Students climb horizontally around our former water tower using climbing holds with the help of fellow students spotting them. Spotting not only keeps students safe but provides an opportunity to practice their communication and teamwork skills learned while participating in Initiatives and the Low Ropes Course.
Outdoor Adventure Activities
Fire Starting
Students attempt different methods for starting a fire in a controlled and safe setting as well as how to best construct a fire for their intended purpose. After this class, student ecologists will be able to: identify different kinds of firewood, describe the best way to construct a fire for an intended purpose, and demonstrate different methods to start a fire.
Shelter Building
Students learn best practices when building a shelter made of only natural materials and test their skills by building their own. Be careful of sudden rainstorms! Student ecologists will be learn to demonstrate what components go into building an effective shelter using only natural materials.
Knot Tying
Students learn how to tie different types of knots, each knot’s intended purpose, and how knots can be helpful in their everyday lives. Students will learn how to tie 1-5 knots and describe the best use cases for them.
Compass Orienteering
Students learn how to use a compass to determine headings and navigate through challenges in addition to the benefits of a compass in the age of GPS. Students will learn to find a directional heading using an orienteering compass and describe why is it helpful to know how to use an orienteering compass.
Archery
Students test their skills by shooting arrows with recurved bows at our foam targets. No prior archery experience is necessary to shoot!
Archery is offered to students in grades 4 and above on our 2 archery ranges. The archery ranges and their equipment are available for use by participants only when a qualified archery instructor is present and safety rules are in practice.
Guided Hikes
Students are led on a leisurely hike by a Camp Sealth staff member on one of Camp Sealth’s many trails. These hikes can involve different activities like plant identification, trail games, and solo walks.
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