School

Travel back in time to the 1800’s and learn to live like a pioneer! Students will participate in several hands-on activities like wood working, candle making, blacksmithing, and being a student in a one-room schoolhouse.

Explore the ingenious contributions of Native Americans.
Students discover the unique characteristics, tools, and weapons of tribes from different regions of the United States. They learn about historical figures, major events, and geographic features that shaped each tribe—then they get to practice their skills!

Come explore the world of amphibians, reptiles and fish in our new living lab. How do they move? How can a snake eat with no hands? Why does a salamander live near the water? Why don't all the fish swim in the middle of the tank?

This exploration module is designed to be incorporated into many of our other full length programs.

Learn about what makes fish tick. Create an aquatic creature as you learn about adaptations. Catch some fish: with a pole, with a seine net, compare bait preferences. Then observe and examine what you caught. Are they all fish? What else can you learn? Walk along the beautiful Camp Tyler shoreline and discover more about aquatic habitats and ecosystems.

What do you know about dirt? Where does sediment come from? How is a delta formed? What do different types of soil feel like? Is soil alive? Explore the forest to see the creation of soil in process! Work in teams to model how a stream is formed and how erosion affects it. Discover the makeup of soil. See how dirt can actually act as a water filter!

Students take a nature hike to one of our camp ponds and are faced with a question: is this pond healthy? They apply the scientific process to reach a conclusion. By collecting macro-invertebrates, they work on developing observation skills, using a dichotomous key, recording notes in a journal and forming conclusions. Every student puts on boots, grabs a dip net, looks under a microscope, and gets their hands dirty!

What can you learn about an animal based on what they leave behind? Can you tell what it ate, where it might have lived, and why it’s shaped the way it’s shaped? Students explore all these questions and more as they interact with our skins and skulls collection, applying scientific thinking to some bony and hairy mysteries!

Walking through the woods can be the best classroom in the world! There’s no telling what your class will come across—a mysterious decomposing log, a consumer in action, a bird building its nest, a pollinator contributing to its ecosystem. Review vocabulary, stop to study nature's processes in action or take time to journal your experience. The possibilities are endless!

How much do you know about birds? Explore bird habitats, physical characteristics, and behaviors to learn about the amazing variability of adaptations that birds have, from specialized feet to feathers that suits them to survive in their niche! Take a hike to look for birds in our rich ecosystems at Camp Tyler. Meet our chickens to see birds up close and personal. What can you notice? What do you wonder about?

Insects compose two-thirds of the known species on earth! Come out for a day to find out how insects contribute to our ecosystems. Whether pollinators make sure we have crops to eat, insects provide a meal as part of the food web, or insect larva help decompose a rotting log, there is plenty to learn about the role of insects in nature. Find out the structures and functions of various insects and what makes them unique. Discuss stages in their life cycles. How do different insects use blending in or standing out to survive?

Every class that comes to Camp Tyler can benefit from our team building program! Through initiative games in the field and our low ropes course, groups learn to work on the 4 C’s—communication, cooperation, commitment, and caring. Classes move from being a collection of individuals toward being a true team, putting the needs of others before themselves, listening to everyone’s voice, and thinking like a family to accomplish challenges.

What is your situation? Given a scenario can you work as a team to problem solve as you survive in the wild? Using skills such as orienteering, campfire building, and shelter building you will have the opportunity to practice skills needed to meet the basic needs of water, food, shelter, warmth, and safety.

Whether recognizing accomplishments through hard work and attendance, or celebrating the end of a successful school year, choose a day of fun at Camp Tyler with our program designed to reward superb efforts. What an amazing, fun, and active way to celebrate endings!

Spend a day testing your mettle. Do you have what it takes to survive without the comforts of the modern world? It is your own adventure as you choose you options to accrue points as a team. Navigate your course, try your hand at archery, mental challenges... and what's in the bag? Can your team come out on top? This race is only for those who dare.