Hi Stephanie,
Several summers ago in a small town called Smiths Falls, I ran summer day camps with an off-site component. The best one was 'CSI:Smiths Falls'. We did several fun hours of learning about fingerprints, footprint casts, and artist sketch software with several retired men from National Defense and the RCMP. After lunch, the children walked over to the town jail where they enjoyed being shown around (and into a real jail cell!) and on the way back, stopped for donuts! During the time away, we prepared a 'crime' to happen, which they then had to solve, using their newly learned skills. This was so popular it was run three years in a row!
Other day camp themes were going off-site for a hike lead by a field naturalist, and linking craft and snacks to support the activity (we made water bottle carriers and trail mix, etc.). For an insect themed day, we walked over to a local bee-keeper who mesmerized us with his bees. Again, our snacks and crafts revolved around the insect theme.
Most off-site activities work best if they can utilize community locations to keep costs down. It's sometimes surprising what you have around you that you can work into a camp activity.
Good luck!
Jennifer
Jennifer Beauchamp
Curator
Thames Valley Museum School
656 Main Street North, Box 37
Burgessville, Ontario N0J 1C0
519.424.9964
[log in to unmask]
www.museumschool.ca
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Reggie Woolery
Sent: Friday, December 11, 2009 2:04 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] off site field trips
Hi Stepanie,
We run a couple summer camps. The first is sponsored by a grant from the
Gluck Foundation called "Art Marks the Spot" connecting off-sites with
artmaking. The group teen group last summer traveled to the UCR Botanical
Gardens and also the local landfill, making new works based on things found
in the those places. The blog can be found at:
http://artsblockspot.blogspot.com/
We also produce a summer media camp "MyGlobalVillage" using documentaries to
discuss local-global issues. This was our third year and the program is
becoming more refined and popular with high school age students. After
viewing a film on India, we traveled to "little India" in Artesia for food,
exploring shops, a teach-in at the local Gandhi statue, and follow-up
lessons back the museum. After a film on the environment students visited a
community garden and saw residents growing indigenous Mexican corn. Students
also painted out graffiti-tagging under a bridge overpass, and shared water
with homeless downtown.
All of these experiences added value to the summer for the staff and for the
students. All of the additional costs were absorbed by us, so it wasn't a
hardship to parents to have their kids participate. Though it took time to
plan and took away from lessons on photography we could have done, the
quality of experience for students was much better than staying
computer-bound in the museum. We are trying to expand this
museum-without-walls approach further in coming years. The blog for this
class can be found at: http://mgv-ucr.blogspot.com/
Best, Reggie
Reginald Cortez Woolery
Artist, Director of Digital Studio
& Education Outreach
EMAIL: [log in to unmask]
WEB: http://www.artsblock.ucr.edu/digitalstudio
MAIL: 3824 Main Street, Riverside, CA 92501
VOICE: 951.827.4796 | FAX: 951.827.4797
BLOG: www.i215radio.blogspot.com
UCR ARTSblock
http://www.artsblock.ucr.edu
UCR/California Museum of Photography
http://www.cmp.ucr.edu
Sweeney Art Gallery
http://www.sweeney.ucr.edu
Barbara and Art Culver Center of the Arts
http://www.culvercenter.ucr.edu
On 12/11/09 9:10 AM, "Nancy Perschbacher" <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Hi Stephanie,
>
> During our summer Spy Camp we take our kids to the FBI National Headquarters
> here in Washington, DC to meet with real FBI agents, ask them questions and
> sometimes see artifacts from the FBI archives. The agents also play along
> with the campers' "missions" and they give the kids some information to help
> them complete their camp tasks for the day and move along our storyline. The
> field trip has always been very popular with the kids and parents, especially
> since the FBI headquarters isn't open to the general public, so it is
> something special we can contribute due to our connections within the
> intelligence community. The trip is directly tied in with the educational
> goals of camp and adds a very authentic experience for the kids. It also
> provides a nice break for our staff during the week, since we can take the
> kids over there and someone else is teaching them for about an hour. However,
> since there is so much security in the building, it does take a great deal of
> effort before camp begins (we need to get the SS# for all the kids and their
> place of birth for security checks) and during camp to get them into and
> around within the building (with escorts and ID badges, etc), so it really
> isn't much of a break and certainly isn't a "babysitting" activity. Overall,
> we think it is a great addition to Spy Camp and we've gotten great positive
> feedback about it. If you have more questions you can contact me or Jackie
> Eyl, the Youth Education Director here at the museum.
>
> Cheers,
> Nancy
>
>
> Nancy Perschbacher
> Collections Manager
> P] 202.654.0933
>
> International Spy Museum
> 800 F Street, NW
> Washington, DC 20004
> spymuseum.org
> [log in to unmask]
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
> Of Stephanie Dilk
> Sent: Friday, December 11, 2009 11:22 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [MUSEUM-L] off site field trips
>
> Listers,
>
> I am hoping to find others out there who have experience using field trips in
> their programming; not field trips that come to you, but rather, field trips
> FROM you to other places.
>
> This is something my colleagues and I have been discussing internally and I
> thought it would be great to get feedback from others in the field.
> Specifically we're looking at the programmatic experiences we offer through
> our summer camp. The question is whether taking a field trip OFF SITE during
> camp is a good idea. Does it offer the parents "more bang for their buck"? Is
> there a perceived added value if their kids are taken somewhere else? Is it
> perceived as a "babysitting" mechanism as opposed to a planned activity? Do
> these field trips de-value your own site (ie- we're taking you elsewhere
> because the resources we have here aren't good enough).
>
> Examples of previous trips include:
>
> * "Fables, Faeries and Fantasies" camp class went to see Harry Potter when it
> came out last summer
> * "Recycle Rummaging" camp class went to the local recycling plant in town
> * "Awkward Art" class went to a local pottery place where they glazed and
> fired pottery mugs
>
> Those of you who run camps, or other children's programs, do you use field
> trips? How often? Can you give an example of the kinds of things you've done?
> How was it perceived by the parents? Kids? Your own administration/other
> program facilitators?
>
> Any and all thoughts and input would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thank you in advance for your time,
>
> Stephanie L. Dilk
> Education Manager
> Minnetrista
> 1200 N. Minnetrista Parkway
> Muncie, IN 47303
> (765) 287-3528
> www.minnetrista.net
> ? please consider the environment before printing this e-mail
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Minnetrista Cultural Center
> 1200 MInnetrista Parkway
> Muncie, Indiana
> United States
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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