Search Database

Burgundy Center for Wildlife Studies (BCWS) (Capon Bridge, WV)

• Website

  http://www.burgundycenter.org/

• Topics

  • By Subject Area: Earth Science
  • By Subject Area: Science
  • Educational Options: Summer Programs
  • For Gifted Students: Camp

• Sponsor

  Burgundy Farm Country Day School

Comments

Educator on 1/21/2018

Burgundy Center for Wildlife Studies is a place of magic. A place where magic happens daily and sometimes hourly. Burgundy Wildlife combines really good science, with what I would call explosive creativity and cooperative fun. The very low camper staff ratio offers lots of choices of activities. The camp holds daily wildlife explorations on a 500 plus acre natural campus, which has been a nature sanctuary since the 1960's, as well as backpacking trips. Do a bird and butterfly census, use a powerful microscope, study and watch amphibians loose their gills and emerge from their watery habitats to breath air from newly formed lungs, solve land use issues cooperatively and learn the difference between transpiration and respiration, through immediate direct experience. While the mornings are dedicated to more or less science related investigations, in the afternoon creativity bubbles up like a summer cumulonimbus into a wide range of activities. Choices range from hikes that offer spectacular 360 degree views from the nearby mountaintop "Bald", explorations of "fern valley" to see the mysterious walking fern and maiden hair fern, every type of art medium and arts and craft, or playing ultimate frisbee and capture the flag while hurdling yellow 5 foot mullien flowers to swimming in the pure spring fed pond. Hootenanny's, sing a longs and barn dances and night hikes alternate with evening nocturnal walks to listen for the three most common kinds of owl, watch the bats emerge and swallows find their roosts, hear the frogs form their nightly chorus and the milky way appear spectacularly from horizon to horizon in one of the few places 2 1/2 hours from Washington, DC where light pollution hasn't ruined the nightly canopy. You lay back in your screened in dorm, hearing the crunching of nearby deer, feeling the cool air flowing down the mountain and listening to the gurgle of the nearby stream. It has been a day of magic. I have been a camper, served on staff, and sent both children to this camp and watched them both serve on staff. For all of us, its been a life changing kind of place.

Educator on 1/19/2018

BCWS has shaped me into the teacher I am today. I began as a camper, and then worked as a staff member for many years, including as assistant director. The staff here are energetic, enthusiastic teachers, who return because they loved the experience so much they want to keep learning with friends and teach younger people who are interested in the outdoors. Returning campers talk about being able to feel known and investigate things that interest them in a way they can't during the school year. The staff plan lessons for the first week, on everything from Hymenoptera to constellations, with games and costumes and exploring. The second week students get to explore whatever individual project they want that connects to the natural world. We get to dive as deep into a subject as a camper wants to go - and I learned a lot with my campers that I never knew before! We learn and go hiking and sing a lot and laugh at goofy skits and no one is made fun of for being interested in bugs or birds. Campers will love people they meet, staff will love the all-consuming experience of working, and parents will be vaguely confused at why their child is still refusing to get in the car and leave - and see how much their children can be themselves.

Student on 12/15/2004

This summer will be my 5th summer at BCWS and I have loved every minute of camp for the last 4 years. I learned soooo much and I had an excellent time doing so. It is the bright spot of my summer. I have so many good memories from there and I am really looking forward to my next summer there.

Student on 12/3/2004

Being a camper for the past 5 years, all I can say is that I love BCWS! We go backpacking in Monogeheila National forest, take preturnals, nocturnals, hike, create your own picasso master piece (art), swim, bird watch from the 60 foot canopy walkway, eat wine berries and reflect on the day, life or just read a book. Before dinner (which is better than my mom's home cooked meals and they're pretty good) amongst other activities; the friends I've made at Burgundy I hope I'll have forever. The councelers are cool, intellectually intriguing and embrace the campers with knowledge, excitment and fun activities.

Parent on 7/6/2004

This is an incredibly unique experience for kids to challenge themselves intellectually, physically, and socially. My son has returned year after year. Highlights have included lengthy night hikes, a large selection of science workshops, multi-day back-packing trips sleeping out on the trail, caving, fishing, swimming, canoeing, and self-directed projects and presentations. Vinnie Schoene, the director, can speak at length on every lichen, geological formation, insect, reptile, fish, mammal, bird, or fossil that one might find. Her boundless energy, curiosity and sense of adventure are infectious. My son has a tremendous sense of comfort and self-sufficiency in the woods as a result, and a love of the natural world thay will stay with him throughout his life.

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