a science-based nature program suited to their own camp, its setting, its clientele, and its overall program structure. We hope that we can inspire you to create your own training clinic, perhaps using ours as a model, and through these clinics and their participants, we can introduce many, many more children to the pleasures and benefits of nature study. Clinic Goals The basic objectives of the clinic, established from the outset, were to: 1) help the participants become familiar with the flora and fauna of northern New England, 2) show them how to plan and execute lessons for teaching about nature and natural history in the outdoors, and 3) familiarize them with the resources available to help them with their teaching. These might include books, state and federal agencies (such as the U.S. Geological Survey or NASA), nonprofits (Audubon Societies), and museums or science centers. Of course, for the first of these, you could easily substitute your area (“help the participants become familiar with the flora and fauna of southern coastal California”). The clinic is very much place-based, and it needs to begin with learning about your “place.” Beyond these goals, we want to train the participants to meet other objectives. The first is to be able to plan activities that will get the campers to look at and observe the world around them. We want to help campers “see.” This idea is stated in the mission statement for Pemi’s Nature Program (modeled after one written by Allen H. Morgan of the Massachusetts Audubon Society): To capture the attention of the inquisitive mind, bring to it an affection for this planet and all of life, and to foster an intelligent understanding of man’s position in the natural balance of things. We want to help campers and participants “take a closer look.” In order to do this, we lead them into nature; we don’t just talk about it. We explore our surroundings together, noticing the action of life all around us. 28 CAMPING magazine • March/April 2014 Second, good activities have detailed lesson plans. So, the clinic includes a discussion of these and a full day devoted to planning and executing a nature-based lesson plan. We emphasize that one of the goals of a lesson is to bring the campers to the point where they will formulate their own questions. “Why do moths fly toward light?” “Why are the leaves on the seedlings in the forest so big?” “Why can’t the piece of coal that I found in Mahoosuc Notch come from there?” Science is about questions, not memorization of facts. You must seek answers directly from nature and only observation of what’s “out there” can lead you to them. This gets us back to the first objective that I mentioned: getting the campers to look at and observe the world around them. If they do this, then the questions (and maybe the answers) should follow. The Clinic Structure We break the clinic into two halves. For the first days, we focus on natural history. We do this mostly in the field, modeling some of the teaching techniques that we’ll be talking about later and introducing the participants to the resources that we’ve used to create our lesson plans. The second half of the clinic focuses on teaching. Here, too, it is “hands-on,” as they have to create and teach an actual lesson with the rest of us acting as the “campers.” They also will create and build a display as an example of how you can teach without actually being there. Both of these activities further serve to introduce them to the area’s natural history and to the resources available to help them with their teaching. The Clinic Schedule Here is an example of one day’s activities, taken from last year’s schedule: Tuesday (June 12) Early Morning (6:30 a.m. – 7:30 a.m.) Tweet, Tweet: Birding with Russ Morning Creepy Crawlies: Workshop on Insect Ecology, Collection, and Preparation Camp Pemigewassett, founded in 1908 and still under the same family ownership and management, is a private camp for boys ages eight to fifteen located on Lower Baker Pond in Wentworth, New Hampshire. It has four equally important program areas: athletics, nature, trips, and music and the arts. Afternoon A Colorful Feast: Wild Foods and Natural Dyes Field Walk and Cooking Lesson (Wild Foods) Nature Crafts, Natural Dyes (Demonstration and Activity) Evening Rocks and More: Workshop on Rock and Mineral Activities, Weird Science Stargazing, Nature Drawing and Journals, and More Students will participate in these activities. Of course, this is only one day. The week’s pace is fast and the schedule is intense. In fact, this year’s participants nicknamed it “Nature Boot Camp.” Because the clinic takes up an entire week, it is very different from other precamp instruction clinics such as lifeguarding, archery instruction, or sailing, which last only two or three days. I’d like to expand upon a few of the key activities we use during the clinic. Key Activities Sunday Evening: In the Dark We jump right into this activity on the first evening. Nighttime can be scary or entrancing. There are new sounds and sensations, colors fade, and shapes loom out of the dark. We want kids to be comfortable in the dark and fascinated by it. This activity is a two-hour night walk. We get out the bat detector and listen to the bats use their sonar to chase a tennis ball thrown in the air or moth. We watch the female fireflies signal for mates and the males answer. Each species has its own unique “Morse code.” Some females, however, will also mimic the flashes of another species, lure the males to them, then eat them — true “femme fatales.” There is a constant chorus of frogs — at that time of year, mostly the chirps of grey tree frogs. Occasionally, there is the plucked banjo call of the green frog or the “jug-o-rum” of a bull frog. Russ imitates the call of the Barred Owl (“Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all? Hawwwwww, hawwww”). They are highly territorial and will call back to defend their territory. We look at the f lashes generated when one bites into Wint-O-Green Lifesavers and by scratching two pieces of smoky quartz together. All of these activities can be used to safely introduce children to the wonders of nature at night.
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