Posted: February 3, 2025

An opportunity for you to put knowledge and skills gained in the classroom into practice in a hands-on, feet-in education program for upper-elementary school students. Earn two credits, spend a week in the woods, gain valuable skills!

Outdoor School is a residential outdoor education program for upper elementary school students (mostly 5th graders). They spend a week at Shaver's Creek in a camp setting learning about the natural world and studying concepts that support their science curriculum.

We are recruiting Penn State students to be leaders and educators for one week (choose from March 31-April 4, April 7-11, April 13-17 or April 21-25) this spring. As a Counselor, your primary responsibilities are leading games/activities, helping students get ready for the day/night, supervising their safety, sleeping in the cabin, and being a positive role model. Another role you will have is to assist the Outdoor School staff in teaching the daily ecology lessons to your Learning Group. Your task may be as simple as helping to manage the group during an activity or as involved as teaching a portion of the lesson. You will also teach a station in 19th Century costume for the cultural history lesson or assist with the Biodiversity lesson, during which students are introduced to live animals from Shaver's Creek Environmental Center, like snakes and turtles!

There is an application process to become a counselor, and if accepted, you have the option to be enrolled in a two-credit academic course, RPTM/SciEd 140 Outdoor School Field Experience (counts as GHW). The requirements for the course are to participate in three training sessions, one full week of Outdoor School (usually Monday at 1:30 pm through Friday at 3:00 pm), and write a short reaction paper after the experience. Outdoor School Counselors also earn seventy-five volunteer Community Service hours!

For more information about the program including FAQs visit: http://shaverscreek.org/penn-state-students/outdoor-school/. If you know someone who has already participated in Outdoor School ask them about their experience! The program dates and counselor application for Spring 2025 are available on the website listed above, and the application deadline is February 12th. For questions about Outdoor School please contact us at outdoorschool@psu.edu.