When planning our seasons of outdoor education, summer is always a bright spot, but comes with a number of unknowns. Will wildfire season start early? Will smoke force cancellations of summer field trips? Will it be so hot that campers dread going outside? Will our new summer camp be successful? Thankfully, the answers to these questions were overwhelmingly positive, and we’re happy to say this was one of the best summers we’ve had in recent memory. We even had mostly perfect weather!
Keep reading to learn about all four of our summer camps, our summer field trips, a staff and board member spotlight, and volunteer opportunities at KOSS!
Summer Camp Recap
Intro to Camp
KOSS summer camps were well attended this year, thanks in part to The Assistance League of Klamath Basin and the Klamath County Cultural Coalition. Their generous funding allowed us to provide scholarships for dozens of campers this summer, and no one was turned away due to a cost barrier.
Our summer season began with Intro to Camp, where youth ages seven to nine stayed with us for two nights. Many of them had never camped before, but they all had a blast, and there were no tearful calls home in the middle of the night, and not even a request to go home. This is a great camp for kids to foster a relationship with nature, get out of their comfort zones, and build new friendships.
Surprisingly, it was cold at camp at night, but while KOSS has extra blankets, the mosquitoes did not! While this also meant fewer butterflies and beetles to catch, (a favorite activity at KOSS), they had plenty of fun all the same.
(Just so you know, next year this camp will be rebranded to Pinedrops Summer Camp - look to our website in the winter to sign-up early for this and all summer camps)!
Artists & Scientists Camp
This year was our most eventful Artists & Scientists Camp yet! Our guest presenters blew the campers away with exciting activities that are sure to become lasting memories. Over half of the campers were returners; an indicator that we must doing something right, as so many campers seem to come back year after year.
“It’s great to see returners; each year they grow more into themselves and come out of their shells,” says our Education Manager, Mikaela.
In addition to returning campers, we also had returning guest presenters Kristy VanRooyen from OIT and local artist, Debbie Stanton. Kristy has been teaching us about the wonders of bees for years and this year added in an activity where campers made their own beeswax candles. Debbie joined us last year to teach campers how to make zentangles, which she brought back this year, while also offering a leaf printing workshop.
But we were also excited to bring in new guest presenters! Tricia Elliot from OIT taught about parasites and offered face painting, the KCC Science Club did several chemistry experiments, and April Wietlisbach taught tightrope, juggling, and aerial arts. Our instructors also went above and beyond this year, crafting their own lessons in book binding, cyanotype printing, and Pokemon evolution.
If you have an art or science you would be interested in sharing in 2027, please reach out and let us know!
Wetland Wonders Camp
Klamath Basin Refuges hosted us at The Tulelake Wildlife Refuge for our second-annual Wetland Wonders Day Camp. It was well received once again, including some favorite activities such as archery, caving at Lava Beds, and bird watching, as well as adding in Great Horned Owl Adaptations Dress-up, watercolors, and face painting. We hold many field trips throughout the school-year at The Refuge, so it is extra special that we get to hold a camp there and do many activities we don’t normally have time for.
Day camp allows youth to participate even if they aren’t ready to camp overnight. To make this camp more accessible, we include free transportation to and from Klamath Falls. This camp would not be possible without our partnership with The Refuge, we extend a huge thank you to them for hosting this camp again!
Survival Skills Camp
We held our first-annual Survival Skills Camp this July! Campers learned how to make fire, build a shelter, use a compass, make natural cordage with stinging nettle, how to make an arrowhead out of obsidian, and much more. It was so exciting watching them learn something completely new and see their “aha” moments when things clicked for them.
On the last day, both teams put their skills to the test during a survival scavenger hunt where they worked together to move through each of the skills they learned throughout the week. Ultimately, the true test was working together as a team to accomplish everything.
Our Director, Kevin, would like to give a shout-out to the fine folks at Headwaters Outdoor School, who have been teaching primitive skills in a harmonious way for decades. Their shared knowledge was instrumental in making our pilot of Survival Skills Camp a success.
Volunteer With Us!
Have you been looking for ways to give back to your community? Excited to get your hands dirty while surrounded by nature? We are looking for dedicated volunteers to help out at camp with several projects from creating defensible space, to cooking meals during programs. No experience necessary! If you are interested in volunteering with us, fill out this interest form to give us an idea of what you’d like to do and when you’re available to help: Volunteer Interest Form
Increasing Literacy Outdoors
For the third summer in a row, KOSS has partnered with Klamath County School District to provide fun field trip opportunities for students enrolled in summer school programs. Students get a four day series learning outdoors at locations that many of them have never been to. Oregon’s summer learning grants prioritize increased literacy, so we’ve taken that as a call to action to incorporate place-based reading, nature journaling, and critical thinking into each field trip.
This year we took students to four favorite locations in Klamath County, exposing them to different surroundings and concepts. We love bringing youth to Moore Park because it is somewhere many of them have visited before, but few have explored deeply. Spence Mountain’s scenery is a little different from what they are used to, and most students haven’t visited their impressive trail systems. We combine the Link River Trail with the Favell Museum. On the trail, students use binoculars to view diving birds in the present, while the museum provides a portal into the past, diving into local history. At the end of the week, students get a tour of Badger Run Rehabilitation Center and get an up and close look at animals on the mend, and learn what it is like to work at this wonderful non-profit organization.
Throughout the week, students wrote observations in their journals, learned to use identification guide books, and discerned fact from opinion within site-specific news articles. We’d like to extend a special thanks to the school staff who make this possible, to our instructors for their dedication to summer learning, and to the Favell Museum and Badger Run for opening their doors to us.
Staff & Board Member Spotlights!
We like to acknowledge how hard working and energetic our instructors and board members are. We will spotlight two of them today, but we’ll try to give everyone the opportunity in the future, as ALL of our staff members are amazing individuals!
Tabitha Weir
Tabitha joined KOSS this past spring and has been an absolute rockstar! They have learned lessons on the fly, incorporated fun, new activities into existing lessons, and even acted as one of our guest presenters during Artists & Scientists Camp. We’ll be sad to see them leave, but excited they get to deepen their scientific knowledge at Portland State University.
What do you enjoy most about working at KOSS?
I was most excited to learn from the other instructors at KOSS this summer, and spend time outdoors. We have a talented group of instructors who have taught me a lot!
Do you have a memorable outdoor school experience to share?
We had a student this year give an amazing presentation about the life cycle of salmon, during which he sidelined to give us all some info about the periodic table and elemental water. I was really blown away with him being excited about chemistry through his own personal inquiry, and loved seeing the impact different instructors had on his inspiration.
When you're not outside providing high quality outdoor education, where might we find you?
You'd be most likely to find me reading. I did not have much time for personal reading while getting my bachelor’s, so I'm trying to get through as many books as I can before heading into a doctorate program.
Terry Withrow
Terry has been volunteering for KOSS for several years and is truly instrumental in the functionality of our camp facilities! He puts in a lot of time and effort, and has been dedicated to ensuring our camp is in good working order and properly prepared for each season.
What are you most excited about for the future of KOSS?
I am excited that we are building and improving a camp where students will want to come and learn about the environment that surrounds us and also learn how to preserve it.
Do you have a memorable outdoor experience to share?
One of my most memorable experiences outdoors was spending the night atop Red Butte in the Mount Jefferson Wilderness area watching the Perseid meteor shower.
When you're not in a board meeting discussing the future of KOSS, where might we find you?
When not involved with KOSS, you might find me somewhere on the river doing a multi-day raft trip, or hiking trails and exploring!
Donate if you can!
We strive to make our summer camps affordable, want to have many field trip opportunities, and are always trying to improve our facilities. But with rising operation costs, and limited grant funding, that is not always possible. Please consider donating. General purpose donations give us the flexibility to cover scholarship costs, maintenance, wages, and more.
You can donate on our website or mail check/cash donations to P.O. Box 721, Klamath Falls, OR 97601.
Klamath Outdoor Science School (KOSS) is a 501(C)3 non-profit organization with a mission to inspire a deep appreciation for natural resources, community, and the arts through hands-on outdoor education.
