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Outdoor Education
Adventure with Purpose
What Students Learn:
1. Challenge and Choice: Students choose their level of participation and learn to recognize their comfort, challenge, and panic zones. This builds self-awareness and confidence to take on new challenges.
2. Being Fully Present: Everyone unplugs from devices to connect with each other and nature. Without digital distractions, students rediscover focus and genuine conversation.
3. Being Honest: Students practice speaking truthfully and taking responsibility for their actions. Outdoor settings create natural opportunities to rebuild trust and practice integrity.
4. Setting Goals: Students set meaningful, achievable goals and learn to ask for and accept support which helps them build real confidence.
5. Caring for Self and Others: Students check in with each other and support teammates through challenges. This develops empathy and social skills that screens can't teach.
6. Letting Go and Moving On: Students practice conflict resolution and learn from feedback in real-time. They develop emotional regulation skills that serve them throughout life.
At the Swain Campus, our Outdoor Education Program inspires curiosity and brings learning to life. Each grade level engages in experiences that connect directly to the science and social studies curriculum, offering meaningful opportunities to explore, reflect, and build community. Through these journeys, students grow as engaged explorers and thoughtful stewards of the natural world, cultivating a deeper sense of responsibility, wonder, and connection.
What Students Learn:
1. Challenge and Choice: Students choose their level of participation and learn to recognize their comfort, challenge, and panic zones. This builds self-awareness and confidence to take on new challenges.
2. Being Fully Present: Everyone unplugs from devices to connect with each other and nature. Without digital distractions, students rediscover focus and genuine conversation.
3. Being Honest: Students practice speaking truthfully and taking responsibility for their actions. Outdoor settings create natural opportunities to rebuild trust and practice integrity.
4. Setting Goals: Students set meaningful, achievable goals and learn to ask for and accept support which helps them build real confidence.
5. Caring for Self and Others: Students check in with each other and support teammates through challenges. This develops empathy and social skills that screens can't teach.
6. Letting Go and Moving On: Students practice conflict resolution and learn from feedback in real-time. They develop emotional regulation skills that serve them throughout life.
Program Highlights
6th-grade students explore Green Lane Reservoir through kayaking and hands-on water science using the Floating Classroom. The Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy leads this day trip, guiding students as they use a floating science lab to test water quality and study watershed ecology. Students investigate aquatic ecosystems while conducting scientific research on the water.
7th-grade students explore the topics of oceanography and astronomy by traveling to Chincoteague Bay Field Station, a research station that specializes in wetland ecology and oceanography situated on Wallops Island in Virginia. Students learn experientially through hands-on trips to local ecosystems and science labs.
8th-grade students begin their school year with a leadership retreat at Camp Oneka in the Poconos where they swim, kayak, climb, team-build, and establish their vision and goals for their last year at the Swain Campus.
Contact Us
Have questions about the Swain Campus Outdoor Education Program? We’d love to hear from you.
Have questions about the Swain Campus Outdoor Education Program? We’d love to hear from you.
Our Outdoor Education Coordinator is here to support students, families, and community members who want to learn more about our programs, activities, and opportunities to explore the outdoors.
Erin Coffey (Ms. Coffey)Outdoor Education Coordinator
