ABOUT ECHO HILL OUTDOOR SCHOOL
Our philosophy then (70’s) and now is the same: to bring children back to nature through exciting ourdoor experiences.
Since 1972, when a group of visionaries created a school based on experiential environmental education, Echo Hill Outdoor School has been inspiring future environmental stewards through the magic of playing, learning and exploring in the outdoors. Today, more than 6,500 students and teachers from 12 Maryland counties annually visit Echo Hill Outdoor School’s extensively-wooded Bayside campus or board the school’s historic educational fleet to do what came naturally to past generations—to experience the wonder, curiosity and intense learning sparked by lessons in nature’s classroom.
For the last 40 years, Echo Hill Outdoor School has been teaching students about the magic of the environment with no classrooms, no textbooks, and no assignments. Exploring natural landscapes from marshes to local waterways, students observe and appreciate the environment surrounding them.
During lessons on our adventure/challenge course, in our nature preserve and its freshwater swamp, and around the waterways and fields of rural Kent County, participants in Echo Hill Outdoor School’s programs experience a ‘eureka’ moment when their classroom environmental science lessons jump out of the textbook and into real life—the foundation of environmental literacy. Our programs aim to form a practical understanding of the environment based on hands-on experiences, and through them, to help each student grow their sense of self-reliance, confidence, and independence.
Exploring the Echo Hill Outdoor School Philosophy
“Children return from the experience with a heightened sense of awareness of environmental issues which is then reinforced and expanded upon in our own curriculum throughout the school year. ”
Philosophy
Echo Hill's outdoor classes and residential programs are grounded in our desire to have students live and learn closely with nature. From sensory exploration classes, to canvas platform tents, from the outdoor dining hall, to the dorms surrounded by forest, the philosophy of immersion is present. Our small, hands-on classes provide opportunities for all students to become engaged and participate. Interactions between staff and students in the tent areas, during meals, and in class groups focus on fun, creativity, respect, awareness, understanding, and learning. As teachers and naturalists, we believe that students learn best when they are curious and interested.
Our Method
Trained and qualified Echo Hill teachers use the surrounding outdoor environments as their classrooms. Students explore the forest, meadows, ponds, streams, swamps, marshes, beaches, fields, farms, towns, and the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. In Echo Hill's unique setting, students make personal connections with the subjects they are studying. As students smell, touch, see, hear, and taste to learn, abstract concepts become real, tangible, and visible. With the guidance of the Echo Hill teachers, students learn to observe, incorporate previous knowledge, formulate questions, and draw conclusions.