Creating Awe at Camp

Is awe essential to our happiness? Are we creating and perpetuating a society that lacks awe? These questions are being asked as we further examine how our built environments are changing. Time magazine and Psychology Today reported on a 2012 study that shows how “awe-inspiring moments” actually help us to perceive time as moving slower, which is acknowledged as having a positive effect on our otherwise fast-paced life. After viewing awesome (that is, awe-inspiring) images, volunteers reported feeling “more patient, less materialistic, and more willing to help others.”

“Awe can rock our world, making us reassess our beliefs and revise our theories of how things work,” writes Dacher Keltner, the psychologist who conducted the study, which you can read about here and here.

This is of particular interest when we look at how the children of today experience childhood in comparison with children from previous generations. Take, for instance, their experience of the night sky. Unlike the older generations alive today, many suburban and urban youth have not had the experience of standing in utter and complete awe of the night sky, due to invasive, pervasive light pollution. Having specialized in preserving and harnessing natural beauty for the public’s consumption for well over a century, many national parks are beginning to recognize the value of offering programs and activities specifically centered on the wonder of the night sky.

Much like the National Park Service, many camps focus significant portions of their program on embracing the natural resources surrounding their camp. When it comes to awe-inspiring moments, camps are in a very advantageous position – and more camps could benefit from structuring programs around the endlessly renewable resource that is the night sky. Why? Because current estimates suggest that 50% of kids born this year will never see the Milky Way!

Integrating nighttime nature programming into your camp curriculum is limited only by the amount of light pollution present at your camp. While camps located inside or near metropolitan areas might have little control, camps in more remote areas can make a dramatic impact upon the amount of light that they emit – which has a direct and converse effect upon how visible the night sky is for their campers. Examples of a few simple changes to help reduce light pollution are: using full cut-off light fixtures, only lighting the areas of camp that need lit at night, and using timers or motion-sensors to ensure that lamps turn off when not needed. As an added benefit, implementing practices that reduce light pollution also reduce electricity bills, representing significant monetary savings for your camp (while also being a great sustainable initiative).

So, camp directors, please structure a little more “awe” into your (surely) already awesome programs. It will help instill a stronger sense of wonder in your campers, aid the development of their imagination, and, if nothing else, give them the impression that their experience at camp is passing slowly. And what kid doesn’t wish that camp would move just a little bit slower?