LOS
ANGELES
COUNTY
OUTDOOR
SCIENCE
SCHOOL
Tips for choosing a week
• Check your school calendar for next year. Find out when holidays, special events, and testing weeks are scheduled.
• When you call to make your reservation, be prepared with three or four weeks which might work for you. It's possible your first choice may already be filled by another school.
• If you are using high school students as cabin leaders, consider their availability. You might want to check next year's high school calendar to see when holidays, testing weeks, and major sporting events occur.
• Think about choosing a fall week, especially if you operate on a year-round school calendar. Fall weather is usually gorgeous. The leaves are changing color. The acorns and other fruits of the forest are ripe and falling. The air is filled with the aroma of fall. It is a glorious time to be at Outdoor Science School. Some schools attend specifically in the fall because it sets the tone for the year, or kicks off a major theme of the science curriculum. Many schools attend in the fall because of the powerful student-to-student and student-to-teacher bonding which takes place at Outdoor Science School. The main challenge of a fall week for schools who operate on a traditional school year calendar is getting all of the logistical preparations and fundraising completed prior to attending. Some schools solve that problem by doing their fundraising during the previous year. Schools on a year-round calendar often do not have the challenge of a short fundraising and logistics timeline, and can attend in the fall as easily as the spring.
• Due to age and maturity levels, the optimal time for fifth grade students to attend is during the spring, and sixth grade students tend to do best in the fall.
• When calling to schedule a week, ask about the grade level of any schools already scheduled for your week. While fifth and sixth grade students usually mix well, it is preferable to attend with students of the same age.
• If there are other schools in your district who attend Outdoor Science School, you might want to sign up together. Sharing a week at OSS can give students an opportunity to build lasting friendships with other students in their community. Some districts have two elementary schools which feed into the same Middle School or Junior High attend together. This can help the students build relationships that will ease their transition to the new school. Sharing with another school from your district might also save on bus costs.
• Some schools intentionally pair up with a school from a community very different than their own. Sharing the OSS experience with students of different ethnicities and socioeconomic levels can give students an opportunity to learn about other cultures in a very personal way. This social learning can be a very powerful and valuable addition to the science learning at OSS
• If you are attending with another school or schools, you might want to ask for their contact information. Contacting them ahead of time can help you get to know the other teachers, trade information, and coordinate cabin leaders. Some teachers have the students trade letters or complete joint projects prior to attending.
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© LACOSS, 2010
Last Revised: October 19, 2010
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