Is ROEE good for your camp?

Camping Magazine, Nov-Dec, 1998 by Jim Parry

If you are just beginning an ROEE program, you should first create a skeleton curriculum, showcasing the camp's facility, natural and human resources, and solid science and group-building activities. A key step is to know the target market's prescribed classroom curriculum and tie the outdoor program to it. For example, if the fifth graders in you area are supposed to understand biomes, include the camp's biome in the lessons. The curriculum should not be "cast in stone," however; let the school know you are willing to flex and meet the specific needs of the school group. Also, keep in mind the curriculum can act as the basis for mutual planning between the school representative and camp staff.

Know your priorities

Staying in the ROEE business is basically a matter of customer relations. Use this question-and-answer format to identify priorities:

Q What is most important in ROEE?

A The safety and welfare of the students. The program must be child-centered.

Q Who are the customers?

A The teachers decide whether to come back, or at least they make recommendations. Make sure to have good programs for the students, but please the teachers, too.

Q Who evaluates the program, and who works with policy issues?

A Reports from those who attended the program should be sent to parents and the school board, who can be your evaluators and also your allies. A program with a strong reputation can ride through rocky times with these people on its side. They are also key marketing agents for a growing program.

Keep your promises

Thoughtful and friendly relations between people - before, during, and after the experience - is the single most important ingredient. Keep your promises to maintain good business relations; don't surprise your customers. Many schools love their ROEE centers and are fully aware that the camp's primary mission work occurs in the summer. Good communication and honesty are key.

Market enthusiasm

Professional-looking mailings, brochures, videos, Web pages, and planning materials are certainly helpful, but they will not, in themselves, help your ROEE program grow. Teachers will remember good experiences, and obviously, they have many contacts with other educators. Teachers meet with others in their district, and sometimes they change schools. They might have a cousin who teaches in the next town. Enthused teachers are - bar none - the best marketing tool in ROEE.

Developing Your ROEE Lessons

One method of program planning is to offer a menu of classes, and the school groups may choose the programs they like, as time and resources allow. Another method is to create a series of integrated programs that focus on a certain area, such as group development (through adventure and initiative-type activities), nature study, environmental issues, or history. The group's entire visit may focus on one broad topic.

Once you have developed your menu of classes, create the lesson plans. Many ROEE lessons are adapted from those offered by nature centers and classroom curriculum books such as Project Wild, or they are published as nature activity books. It is a mark of professionalism for an ROEE center to have attractive and thorough lesson plans for ROEE activities. However, many good ROEE centers have no formally written lesson plans.