As well as the activities mentioned in the “Activities” section, there are some very important parts of the camp quest experience which are provided independently of the camp facility.

Many of these we do every day but only take a few minutes at a time. After every other meal we do “famous freethinkers” where a counsellor gets up and talks about two or three famous people (either living or dead) that were or are atheist/agnostic/humanist/skeptic/freethinking. At meals where we don’t do that, we cover world religions/philosophies. The lessons, while fun and aimed at kids, are academic and have a focus on tolerance and understanding. These are not “this is what is wrong with what these people think” sessions - that said, we do occasionally use examples from religions when talking about errors in critical thinking. Many of these activities depend on the specialisations of the counsellors.

The hallmark of any week at Camp Quest is the invisible unicorn challenge. As you may know, there are two invisible unicorns who live at Camp Quest, but who cannot be seen, heard, felt, smelt and do not leave a trace. All counsellors are staunch believers in these unicorns. Any child who can successfully prove that the invisible unicorns do not exist is rewarded with a prize - a £10 Darwin note signed by Richard Dawkins himself! This challenge runs throughout the week.

In addition to this challenge, the children are divided up into groups (usually by sleeping arrangements) and have to work together on a project to be presented on the final night of camp. This could be something like getting the children to make up their own creation story of how we came into being.