Please click here for updated 2008 programs info. (Adobe Reader required)
Details about previous and ongoing programs are listed below.
Camp
Corvid
(current)
Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Grade School Groups
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Camp Corvid is a residential program for 4th, 5th, and 6th grade school groups focused on the following topics: watersheds, humans and ecosystems, wildlife, botany, geology and time, and regional history. Most of each day is spent outside exploring the ecosystem and observing natural systems at work. Students connect their lives to the experience through journaling and drawing, as well as collecting water samples, owl pellets, scat, fur, bones, and plant samples in the field to continue studying back at the Ravenwood facility. |
| Prior to arrival teachers are provided with a pre-trip curriculum to help prepare their class for exploration and learning at Camp Corvid. Each day we focus on a specific ecological topic that is introduced with a hands-on classroom lesson in the lodge the previous evening. Post-trip projects are encouraged to help solidify experiences and lessons at home. This includes ways to implement ongoing projects at school or home such as: waste reduction/reuse, open space, water quality monitoring, wildlife and plant surveys, and native plant plots. |  |
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Maximum capacity is 30 people. Groups must have at least 1 adult chaperone for every 5 children. This is a maximum of 25 students and 5 adult chaperones, including the teacher(s). |  |
(current)
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At the conclusion of each Camp Corvid session we work with the lead teacher to select two students who are invited back to Ravenwood for a weekend of learning and team building with other students from around the region. Common Ground is a program designed to explore the intricacies of culture and nature. How do we view the world? What are some commonalities in the development of all cultures? |
This program is offered once in the fall and spring with representative students and adults from each of the previous season’s participating groups. |
We
are especially interested in searching for this common ground between
native and non-native groups in Montana. Sometimes all it takes
is a look through another’s eyes to truly see your self. Through
Common Ground we hope to see ourselves, and others, with newfound
respect and appreciation. Mountain
Mentors
Middle School
(current)
A four-part mentoring program for local middle school students, Mountain Mentors offers youth an opportunity to challenge their abilities in a series of outdoor experiences designed to help adolescents discover their strengths, set and achieve goals, and gain personal insight and confidence in a supportive, mentor relationship with qualified educators.
Two weekends during the reflective winter months of January and February, a group of no more than four same sex youth will spend up to 30 hours with a Ravenwood mentor learning wilderness survival skills, solving team-building initiatives, confronting life challenges, and celebrating their own achievements. Hiking, cross-country skiing, snow-shoeing, shelter building, camping, tracking, wilderness first-aid, and stone age tool-building are just a few of the many activities serving as our vehicle for success in this unique mentor program.
Expanding
Horizons
Youth Ages 16 and 17
(proposed)
Twenty-four 16 & 17 year olds from across the country will be accepted for the Ravenwood summer program each year. Running from mid-June to mid-August, the 8-week long residential program focuses on gaining wilderness experience, the attainment of life skills, and an understanding of ecological concepts.
Participants work a 40-hour workweek in some of the most beautiful habitat on earth! After their first training week, youth work Monday through Friday on crews of ~6 in the Bob Marshall and Mission Wilderness areas, the surrounding Flathead National Forest, and here at the Ravenwood facility and grounds. Reimbursement will come in the form of a monthly stipend to cover food and housing. The possibility of offering high school or college credit is also being explored.
Projects will include, but are not limited to, trail maintenance and building, watershed restoration, biological research/data collection, campsite/campground maintenance, alternative home building methods, sustainable farming practices, and other community service assignments.
Weekends will be full of chaperoned activities including hiking and fishing in the Jewel Basin and Glacier National Park; lake swimming, canoeing and sea kayaking; organic gardening; Flathead cherry and huckleberry picking; boat tours of Flathead Lake to Wildhorse Island; historic tours around the valley; and a whitewater rafting trip!
Participants must be 16 by the program start date and are responsible for transportation to and from Ravenwood.
Teacher
Training
Professional and Pre-service educators
(proposed)
Ravenwood aspires to offer teacher training to regional educators in order to better prepare them for implementing their own natural science studies at and near their home school. The approach is the same as with our young participants. Teachers will experience the natural world first hand with trained experts who know how and when to ask the right questions leading them to a deeper awareness and understanding of complex ecosystems.
Ravenwood Natural Science Center is dedicated to providing a quality educational experience for children and adults regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, disability or sexual orientation.
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