Thank you all for participating in the post-camp survey. If you haven’t had a chance to fill it out yet: here is the link! https://forms.gle/ppTvwWd4n9XG3RmW7
If you are interested in the feedback we received, feel free to view it here. The only way we all do better is by being honest with each other. Great feedback, thank you! We appreciate you all!
This is what I (personally) am incredibly proud of:
- Every single camp session was completely led by students. Underclassmen high school students shared their passion for camp with your students. They designed the activities, the presentations and lessons, the methods. They made the shopping lists, organized the materials and prepped all the stations. Your camp counselors were AMAZING. Teaching others is a gift and a skill and they showed their gifts. I am grateful to them.
- Everyone had fun. Learned. Grew and felt a part of a positive experience.
- We packed 28 hands-on learning experiences into 12 hours, differentiated by age. Whoo!
- Your campers!! I saw very few tears — and there were 86 kids from K-8. Very few boo-boos, hurt feelings, disagreements. Phew. Anytime you have that many kids in one place, at one time you expect something — our camp nurse was bored. Yaaasssss…
- Our counselor volunteers! 36 volunteers showed up every day with big smiles and positive attitudes to help your children experience marine science in a positive way.
- This was our first camp. Everything was new. Nothing was perfect, but dang it we did alright for our first attempt. We will take our victories where we deserved them and our learning lessons where we need to grow.
Here is what we learned:
- Our check out process needs work for next year. Duh!! We didn’t quite master that in four days. Got it, we are on it.
- While we strove to provide healthy snacks (carrots, snap peas, oranges, apples, granola bars, gold fish, and pretzels) in the snack bags each day — the refined sugar we integrated into the activities themselves was overkill. Check. Fun and refined sugar are not mutually exclusive (as a mom of a T1D and special needs kids, I get it! I am so sorry!). We will do better.
- There was one family whose email address was mis-typed in our form, and all my emails to you bounced. I assume that is why there was one person who felt communication was a fail. Next year, I will make sure we double check those! I wish I knew how to get a hold of you!
Thank you for coming to camp, for being wonderful families, for being passionate about marine science with us and for supporting our program. We are so happy to have you as part of our RHS AquaScience family. Enjoy the photos — and we can’t wait to see you next time!!
Warmest hugs,
Mrs. K, Mrs. Rudge, Mr Wasserman and all of our amazing camp counselors!
Ram Nation Aquascience 