Have you ever walked in to a meeting, a class, or even a practice or activity and thought “wow, I do NOT belong here”? What kinds of feelings does an experience like that evoke in you? Positive feelings? Do you want to return to that environment? Do you feel comfortable learning and trying new things? I doubt it. For most of us, feeling like we don’t fit in or don’t belong is not a pleasant experience. For those of you who have never been in a position like this, let me tell you a quick story…

If you want to engage with research, I’ve created this easy guide to help you move from finding papers online to reading them, and ultimately implementing the suggestions in your own programs. 

Hi Camp Pros!

I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce myself and let you know a bit about what I’m doing here on the American Camp Association® (ACA) Research 360 blog and in the camp world!

Greetings! I am Kendra Lewis, evaluation coordinator for the California 4-H Youth Development Program at University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources. I am going to share my experience with a “data party” as a way to engage camp staff in evaluation data. In California, we recently held a one-day workshop with 4-H camp staff (teens and adults) to review evaluation data collected at their camps last summer. Evaluation data was collected from two sources: youth campers and teen camp staff. We had nearly 30 people representing six camps attend.

I’m going to say this right up front: Today’s Research 360 post is a shameless plug for research — more specifically, a plug for participating in camp research, and encouraging others to do the same.

We can all agree that participating in research — namely, filling out online surveys — does not have a good rap. Understandably so: Surveys are lengthy and boring, and you never have any idea if and how your responses are used. So why bother?

Hi! My name is Mary Rogers, and I am the executive director of Sherwood Forest Camp. I am also the chair of ACA’s Committee for the Advancement of Research and Evaluation (CARE).

Social emotional learning. It’s the good stuff we know kids get out of camp: responsibility, interest in exploration, teamwork skills, independence. We also know that 93 percent of camps today intentionally target skills related to social-emotional learning in their staff training and program planning.

Hello Camp Evaluators! I’m so excited you took a minute of your busy, busy summer to read the Research 360 blog.  I used to be a day camp director, so I know first-hand what is at the tops of the summertime to-do list:  Get. Through. The. Day.  With every camper and staff member safe. And happy! And, on a really good day, their parents are happy, too.