Background: Summer camps can promote positive youth development. Unfortunately, racial, ethnic, and economic disparities contribute to inequities in camp participation and related research on marginalized youth. Consequently, it is not clear what types of camping programs work best for marginalized youth. Purpose: To conduct a quasi-experimental…

Physical inactivity is a growing problem among children, particularly school-aged youth. Research suggests children are especially prone to inactivity in the summer months when access to structured school-time and extra-curricular activities is reduced. Community programs like residential summer camps offer an excellent environment for engaging…

To prepare students for attending school out-of-doors, this manual addresses the student directly. Topics covered in the first part of the manual include the Outdoor School site, the school staff, living at the Outdoor School, studying in the Outdoor School, fun at the school, and a brief paragraph of initial preparation for the Outdoor School.…

Pre- and posttests of 268 children from the fifth, sixth and seventh grades showed that 179 gained 1 to 5 years in reading grade levels after a 4 1/2- week remedial reading program in a camp setting. Followup revealed that none of the participants became school dropouts, and attitudes and achievement were improved. (NH)

The District of Columbia Public Schools Nature Computer Camp (NCC) is an environmental/computer program which has been operating in the Catoctin Mountain Park (Maryland) since 1983. The camp operates for five one-week sessions serving a total of 406 regular sixth-grade students representing 84 elementary schools with an average of 81 students per…

The District of Columbia's Nature Computer Camp program, described and evaluated in this paper, was designed to reduce the geographical isolation of economically disadvantaged urban sixth graders, and to provide them with increased knowledge of the environmental and computer sciences. The paper begins by giving details of the program's management,…

The Camp Chinkapin program, begun in 1957-58 as a pilot program for the State of Oregon, provides all sixth grade students in Crook County (Oregon) with a 5-day session in a resident camp setting in the early summer. The book serves as an introduction to and workbook for students attending the Crook County Outdoor Classroom at Suttle Lake. The…

The 1981 Project Leadership-Service Conference, focusing on serving the community as the training ground for leadership, was conducted for 53 Indianapolis seniors who arrived in early August for 4 days preparatory training and 137 Indianapolis inner city sixth graders who arrived in mid-August. Ten teachers from the sixth graders' schools…