Camps provide a substantial opportunity for youth to develop important life skills. Identifying and training staff on critical competencies are essential to achieving the desired outcomes for camp participants. The purpose of this study was to determine the most critical competencies of the 4-H residential camp staff for achieving high staff…

Research on sport camps for visually impaired youth is limited. The purposes of this study were to examine if visually impaired campers' self-perception of their perceived competence and independence changed as a result of attending a one-week sports camp. Forty visually impaired campers ranging from 10-15 years of age, who attended a one-week…

Approximately 1.6 million Americans have type 1 diabetes, and 200,000 of them are under the age of 20. Self-management processes for these youth such as peer-based support are essential for quality of life. This pilot study partnered with university students and Lions Club International Foundation to pilot test a new diabetes camp model and…

This study aimed to determine adventure camps' effects on Japanese adolescents' body image. A questionnaire survey containing three body image scales was administered to 64 adventure camp participants and 100 non-participants. The study results revealed significant differences and trends regarding 2 of the 3 factors ("understanding of…

Summer camp employment may offer emerging adults opportunities for growth; however, the work can be emotionally challenging and tiring, leading to negative outcomes. Understanding how to support staff is important for youth experiences and critical to staff well-being. While many camp employment characteristics align with basic psychological needs…

Background/purpose: This article presents the results of a pedagogical experiment involving 602 elementary school children from the north of Portugal. Based on the principles of outdoor learning, this experience was carried out in a non-formal education context during the post-pandemic school year - Férias VIVES. The aim of this initiative was to…

Jewish summer camps must hire quality counselors each year. Staff retention is crucial to achieving the mission of Jewish camping; the challenge is that it is often a struggle to retain counselors for more than one to two summers. This study aimed to understand and increase counselor retention for young Gen Z staff, ages 18-22, beyond one to two…

GeoCamp was a place-based intensive short course in geographic inquiry and field methods for in-service teachers and education professionals held from July 18 to 27, 2022, in Iquitos, Peru, and the Loreto region of the Amazon. The course aimed to incorporate elements of geographic inquiry by exploring how plants, animals, and humans interact in…

The world of extracurricular learning spaces unjustifiably falls outside the scope of mainstream educational research: resources that focus on researching extracurricula are few and far between. In the arena of extracurricular activities, one continuously encounters phenomena such as dynamic shifts in individual and collective development, sudden…

Background: Self-perception is an important internal resource, and violence exposure can negatively impact children's view of themselves. Although camp interventions can enhance self-perception, research has not yet examined whether camp interventions improve self-perception among children affected by family violence. Camp-based interventions…

Since ancient times, man has prepared medicines and used them in healing practices. Therefore, there has always been a great interest in the part of people in general and students in particular about medicines. The "Medicines, the Haute Couture of Pharmacy" summer camp has the objective to promote and improve the literacy in medicines…

As research on summer camp continues to expand and both scholars and practitioners gain a better understanding of the impact of the experience, it has become important to explore how the experience of summer camp is connected to the larger ecology of youth development. This study explores strategies of Christian summer camps for impacting faith in…

How do adolescent girls interact with nature? Which affordances do they perceive and enact in nature-rich environments? Drawing on outdoor empirical research, which mobilises cultural probes, walking, and semi-structured interviews as key methodological devices, this article provides possible answers to the research questions, as well as further…

The camp community understands that participation in camp produces a variety of impacts; what is less understood are the causal mechanisms leading to outcomes. In the past, research on the camp experience treated causal mechanisms as monolithic; this commentary argues that a weakness in existing camp research is the assumption that…

Climate change is an urgent global environmental crisis that requires widespread action and an educated, motivated citizenry. This study explored the impacts of a Climate Superheroes STEAM camp on preschool children's ideas about climate-friendly actions. The research employed a mixed methods experimental design approach including a quantitative…