NATURE CAMP ON THE CENTRAL COAST
Outdoor education here at Camp Ocean Pines is an experiential, place-based program whose goal is to provide positive outdoor experiences for students of all backgrounds. Our program is a composite of adventure, education, and traditional camp programming giving students a holistic outdoor experience. From creating cabin skits for campfire to examining the eyes of a starfish as you hold one in your hand (fun fact: their eyes are on their arms!), Camp Ocean Pines offers an outdoor program that combines hands-on science education with social emotional learning and community building.WHO?
We serve students K-12 from every type of school and every community! Our program can be tailored to meet the needs of any grade; however, our educational content targets students grades 4th through 6th.
Our 13-acre facility resides on the coastal bluffs of Cambria, California, the unceded land of the Salinan and Northern Chumash tribes. Cambria is home to one of five native groves of Monterey pines, allowing students a unique opportunity to experience and learn about a Monterey pine forest. We routinely see mule deer, turkeys, raptors, whales, sea lions, and sometimes even bobcats or mountain lions on and around our campus.
WHERE?
Our programming is tailored to meet the background and goals of our schools. Some schools schedule mostly experiential programming—like kayaking, tide pooling, and hiking—while others request that lessons meet Next Generation Science Standards. Our program is diverse and flexible, and our outdoor education director will work with schools to ensure that programming is suitable to their needs.
WHAT?
We schedule schools September through May. We offer day programs, offsite programs, and anywhere from 2-5 day residential programs.
WHEN?
OUR GOALS
Exploring the outdoors is an essential part of childhood, one that is removed from too many students’ lives. We strive to create students who are active participants in the world around them. From looking for salamanders to tasting native woodsorrel to handling snakes, we hope that by engaging with nature hands-on and developing a love and appreciation of wild spaces and wild creatures, we’re creating the leaders, adventurers, and advocates of tomorrow.
EXPLORING NATURE
Part of the magic of Camp is how different and special the experience is from kids’ everyday lives. We want kids to experience nature and then ask questions about it. We want the easily answered questions, like how does a sea star eat, all the way to the vast and unknowable, like if there’s life besides us in the universe. Camp is about having new experiences and letting imaginations soar with all the new what-ifs that emerge.
AWAKENING CURIOSITY
Experiences take greater shape and knowledge stays with us longer the more connections we make. Kids learn about tide pool animals while handling them in the ocean and then revisit the knowledge again in marine lab, learning about ocean habitats and watersheds. Our core educational components are woven throughout our programming so that students have multiple opportunities to make connections with the material.
We also push connections in other forms as well. Socially, students make connections with their classmates and camp naturalists. They make personal connections with the earth and the natural world around them. They make connections between their actions and the respective environmental impact, and they also make connections between the land we reside on today and the tribes that were stewards of this land for time immemorial. Nature is a catalyst for compassion, community, and education, and we utilize it effectively in all of those facets.