Plan your trip

Science

LIMNOLOGY
Become immersed in Limnology, the study of inland waters. Visit our turtles in the Turtle Barn and study learned behaviors and inherited traits. Hold an actual Red Eared Slider from our turtle touch tank. Take an incredible journey as a water molecule and learn about the water cycle. Become a Limnologist and conduct a water quality analysis in our wet lab using actual scientific equipment. Discover whether the claims on the labels of a fish food producer are accurate by testing them at our test pond. Visit Sky Ranch’s Adventure Pond to collect and identify various types of macroinvertebrates.

FORCES IN NATURE
Explore the Forces in Nature which shape our environment. Learn about gravity and friction while using Sky Ranch’s state-of-the-art potato head zip line. Discover gases and pressure by building and launching air rockets. Take a nature hike to observe the rock cycle and the effects of weathering agents, erosion, and deposition on the landscape.

Paddle Talks
Paddle talks are short talks given by instructors for the purpose of better understanding the instructor and providing examples of how character within a person is formed. These talks are unique and deeply personal to each instructor, providing your students opportunity to relate to our staff through the struggles they may be going through. Typically, a paddle talk will be given in conjunction with the short lesson taught in each class.

Remember
The Remember class is always the last class in a trip. In this class, our instructors will go over everything the students learned while at Sky Ranch. The instructors will also do their final paddle talk(s). Afterwards, your students will be given a wood round and markers to make themselves a personalized token to remind them of the things they learned. Once everyone has completed personalized their wood round, some students will be given the opportunity to share their experience with their peers. Finally, the trip will end by playing a game picked by student majority.

Teamwork
Learning how to be a part of a team is an incredibly important aspect to developing as a person. Whether your students want to become a famous astronaut or an award-winning scientist, they’ll all need to understand the importance of being a team player. In this class section, your students will learn the power of teamwork through multiple means. Our instructors will give your students a short, personal lesson on how being (or not being) a team player affected them. Your students will also gain experience in working together through canoeing on our 90-acre lake. Lastly, they will play interactive, challenging team games requiring commitment in each student for their peer’s success. When your team succeeds, you succeed in the Teamwork class!

Trust
Everyday of our lives, we extend trust to people and things we’ve never met or seen before. Whether it is the clerk behind the counter or the caramel between the chocolate, we expect certain responses from certain things. So why do we extend that trust to things we shouldn’t or refuse to extend it to things we ought? In our Trust class, your students will receive a short lesson on trust from one of our instructors, test the trust of their equipment and operators when going down the ziplines or up a climbing wall, and grow trust in their peers and teachers through playing games wherein relying on others is necessary.

Identity
We mistakenly believe the mountaintop and valley experiences in our life are the sole things defining our identity, often forgetting the arduous steps we took to get there. It’s in the everyday we determine who we are and who we are becoming. In the Identity class, your students will learn about themselves by reflecting on their individual life as well as their life as a part of a group experience. Our instructors will give a brief lesson on group and individual identity where after your students will split into teams to learn further about themselves through fun and introspection. We highly recommend this class for older students only.

Communication
What if I came up to you, said “Doinjefa intak alidnle,” and then walked away? It (hopefully) wouldn’t make any sense to you because from your perspective what I told you was unordered and unrecognizable. Though we hardly ever babble undiscernibly to others, sometimes the outcome of our speech is just the same. It’s unordered and unrecognizable because we don’t do a good job of communicating our desires, goals, and logic to others. In the Communication class, your students will learn the importance of their verbal and non-verbal patterns of speech and actions. Our instructors will give a helpful lesson on how to better engage others in our words and actions. Afterwards, your students will have the opportunity to practice their skills through multiple games, each requiring a unique method of communicating to succeed.

Leadership
It only takes a few years in this world to realize we don’t like how some people do things. I’m sure we all can recall the way our parents, teacher, or someone above us acted in a way we disagreed with, yet we were compelled to follow them regardless. However, we may not have known all the facts, feelings, and facets pressing on them to make the decision they did. In our Leadership class, your students will learn how to lead and how to respect leaders. Our instructors will give a small lesson on the importance of leadership within a group and how to be a good leader of a group. Once the talk is over, your students will be challenged to follow the orders of their peers in a series of low ropes activities and games.

• Adventure Playground
• Dodgeball Arena
• T-Swing
• Gaga Pit

• Mini Golf
• Maze
• Basketball
• Sand Volleyball
• 9 Square
• Gaga Pit

• Soccer Field
• Gaga Pit
• Jumping Pillow
• Sand Volleyball

• Activity Center (Basketball, Gaga Ball, Volleyball, Foosball, and Ping Pong)

Activities Include: TreeTop Towers - an interactive adventure playground with a dozen different elements such as climbing walls, jumping segments, a zipline, and more!

Note: Climbing walls and quickflight only available to Student Development groups.