Camp Olympia Announces its Outdoor Education Center

Camp Olympia is excited to announce its new Outdoor Education Center (OEC) at Camp Olympia to serve various grade levels at public, private, and charter schools, as well as homeschool organizations throughout Texas for the 2018-2019 school year. Its 100+ acre private facility utilizes the beautiful Lake Livingston shoreline and diverse forest trails to provide students with an exceptional natural classroom.

Al Bartell, Program Advisor to the OEC at Camp Olympia, describes, “As a teacher this is the greatest place to teach because we teach for the moment. If we see an eagle eating a fish, we explore the food chain. If we come across a rotting log, we observe decomposition. If we cross a gully, we examine erosion. That is the beauty of this place.”

Camp Olympia has been operating its award-winning summer camp for over 50 years and was partnered with Houston ISD to provide outstanding outdoor education from 1977-2018. Students and teachers can enjoy the same high quality, hands-on, outdoor education experience formerly provided exclusively to HISD students. The experienced staff will facilitate authentic interactions with the natural ecosystems and work with your school to create a program tailored to your specific needs and grade level.

Kim Williams, Administrative Director of the OEC at Camp Olympia, explains, “When students come here to explore, it is opening a door to a world they didn’t realize existed. Watching them connect the dots from how the quality of the ecosystem can affect us all, on a daily basis, is exciting. You see them connecting themselves into the global community with a global responsibility.”

Schools can choose from activities such as Forest Ecology, Aquatic Ecology, Fishing, Canoeing, Geology, Conservation, Teambuilding, Orienteering, High Ropes, Gardening, Texas History, Horseback, Astronomy, First Tee Golf, and Archery. The Outdoor Education Center curriculum is carefully aligned with the Texas TEKS to support academic achievement and can be customized for local goals as well.

Al Bartell continues, “We believe in letting the forest and the trees do the teaching. All we have to do is guide the students to ask their own authentic questions and guide them to discover the answers on their own through observation and investigation. That’s science in its purest form.”

To learn more and reserve your school’s next outdoor experience at Camp Olympia, please visit www.campolympiaretreats.com/outdoored or contact the OEC office via [email protected] or 936-594-7074.