The Temple Ambler Campout is not only a night of camping, stargazing, orienteering, making discoveries and stories around the campfire. It’s an opportunity to connect people and groups with one another and the natural world around them.
Registration is still open for the Campout, which will be held at Temple Ambler from 2 p.m. Saturday, September 26 through 9 a.m. Sunday, September 27! This family-friendly event is for all ages. During the Campout, spend the evening outdoors without having to travel hours from home and experience tent camping in the relaxed atmosphere of the Ambler Campus. Registration is just $40 per campsite for visitors and $15 per campsite for Temple students (six people per campsite). Please note: Registration closes on Friday, September 18 and spaces are filling up quickly! Register online here.
“The goal of the Temple Ambler Campout is to provide a welcoming camping experience for beginning and experienced campers alike. Our campout is designed with families in mind who may have never tried camping and want to get that experience without having to trek out into the wilderness,” said Kevin Orangers, Temple University Ambler Deputy Director and Temple Ambler Campout Co-Coordinator. “For experienced campers, this is a way to explore a different type of camping — how often do you get to camp on a college campus — and we hope these participants will share their knowledge with our more novice campers.”
Campers will also have the opportunity to explore the Ambler Arboretum and the Tyler School of Art and Architecture Greenhouse Education and Research Complex, learn some camping basics, take part in a BioBlitz with the Arboretum and Temple Ambler Field Station, take part in day and night orienteering, experience a flight simulator, see how a drone operates up close, have a sing-along, and, of course, make s’mores!
Comfortably Connecting with Nature
At Temple Ambler, while participants will be able to enjoy camping under the stars, they won’t need to worry about “roughing it” too much, said Ambler Arboretum Director Kathy Salisbury.
“It might not be ‘glamping,’ but for those new to camping they can ease into the experience with mentors to help them with putting up their tents, and there be flushing toilets and a place to charge their devices nearby. We’ll also share detailed instructions about what to bring to the campout,” she said. “I think this is part of what makes this event special. It takes some of the discomfort out of a new experience and allows people to focus on connecting with nature.”
Camping, said Salisbury, “brings you closer to nature and helps you build connections with the world as a whole.”
Get Ready for a BioBlitz!
The Temple Ambler Campout is being held in tandem with the Ambler Arboretum and Temple Ambler Field Station BioBlitz.
BioBlitz tours — offered by experts in the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, College of Science and Technology, the Temple Ambler Field Station and the Ambler Arboretum — will highlight the many living species that call the Ambler Campus home from amphibians and reptiles to pollinators and herbaceous plants.
“We want people to realize that the Ambler Arboretum is more than our signature gardens — it is a habitat!” said Salisbury. “Our bioblitz will take place throughout the Arboretum that includes woodlands, meadows, wetlands and creeks.”
Biodiversity “is all around us,” said Dr. Mariana Bonfim, Managing Director of the Temple Ambler Field Station.
“As our participants are enjoying getting out into nature and learning how to identify plants and animals I think they might be very surprised at what they discover living right here in their community,” she said. “The BioBlitz is a chance for people to explore the campus in a completely different way but I hope it will also get them thinking about the biodiversity in their own backyards and what they can do to support increased diversity.”
New Experiences, New Adventures
According to Holly Lynn, Assistant Director of Campus and Student Engagement and Co-Coordinator of the Temple Ambler Campout, beyond the BioBlitz there will be ample “Choose Your Own Adventure” opportunities at the Campout this year, including programs with several new and returning event partners.
“We want the Campout to be something that is engaging on many levels. In addition to a terrific camping experience and an opportunity to connect with nature, we want our visitors to learn firsthand about some of the unique educational opportunities our students are involved with not only at Temple Ambler but Temple University as a whole,” she said. “Campers will see the Temple Formula Racing car in person in addition to interacting with the College of Engineering’s Flight Simulator in the Ambler Research + Collaboration Building. For our younger campers, we’ll have a special Maker Space provided by Mi Casita Preschool and we’ll have a Campfire Singalong led by Temple student Andrew Malick, a senior Music Education major in the Boyer College of Music and Dance!
New this year, Dr. Laura Toran from the Temple College of Science and Technology will provide a special exploration of drones! Demonstrations will include drone safety and use, drone follow me mode and a drone group photo! The Temple University Department of Nursing in the Barnett College of Public Health will also lead campers in some “Firsthand First Aid.” Learn about CPR, blood pressure and pulse checks, how outdoor activities and being in nature impact stress and more!
John Helferty, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering will additionally give a special exploration talk, highlighting the research Temple University students are doing in the NASA funded Student Space Exploration and Embedded Systems Laboratory!
“We’ll look at some of the high-altitude balloon experiments conducted for the 2017 and 2024 solar eclipses that viewed the events from 100,000 up,” he said. “We’ll also explore the students’ suborbital payload experiments that went 100 miles up and the NASA robotic mining competition at Kennedy Space Center.”
Dr. Chris Agard, Assistant Professor of Instruction in Biology in Temple’s College of Science and Technology, will additionally help campers learn about “creepy crawlies” such as reptiles, amphibians and insects, all species he is currently researching on campus.
“The great thing about taking science and interacting with the community is that not only is it educational, it’s also fun! You want to get people ‘in the door’ and we want them to stay interested,” he said. “Whether you’re looking at the stars or looking at insects or snakes or lizards, it’s hands-on and, for some people, it might be just a little bit scary but the kind of scary, the kind of thrill, that keeps you engaged. It’s the sort of thing that helps folks in the community become advocates for nature, for science, for the environment, because they had a good time and want to keep engaging in those experiences — that’s gold right there!”
Fired Up for the Campout
At the Temple Ambler Campout, students from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture Ceramics Program will once again construct a “pit” with cinder blocks on Saturday, September 27, and load it with combustible material for a big fire — different materials create different effects on the ceramics. Tyler students will then place ceramicware they have made within the “pit” — including some items created with clay from the Ambler Arboretum.
Ceramics students and faculty member Lauren Sandler will be on hand to talk about the process during the Campout. (Please Note: The Ceramics Pit Firing is weather dependent. Heavy rain might prevent the firing.)
“This will be our third time participating in the Campout. Since our first Campout, however, our students have been able to conduct other pit firings at Temple Ambler — it’s become a great partnership,” said Sandler. “It's a different experience, a different learning process and there will be different effects on the objects and materials.”
Being part of this program, Sandler said, “I think serves many positive purposes.”
“One is getting us out of our studio, which is always good, and having new experiences — something we might not be able to do otherwise,” she said. “It's also a great opportunity to collaborate with other people, getting to know the community at Temple Ambler, what is happening there and what we might be able to do together. I think that just makes teaching and learning creative work more engaging and just more interesting for all of us — it makes it more dynamic.”
Join Us at the Campout!
For participants of the Temple Ambler Campout, registration includes a tent site — 15’ x 15’ (bring your own tent), the BioBlitz, guided walks, workshops, campfire, stargazing, s’mores and all of the Choose Your Own Adventure activities! View the whole schedule of activities here!
Guests are invited to bring their own food to the Temple Ambler Campout. It's the perfect evening for a picnic dinner! There will also be food trucks with items available for purchase at the Campout from 5 to 7 p.m.
Please Note: Cooking at the event is prohibited. Refrigeration is also unavailable. Coffee, juice, and cereal bars will be provided the morning of September 27.
For additional information, contact 267-468-8108 or [click-for-email].