Essential Question: Do I Have Everything I Need?
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APPENDIX Essential Question: Do I have everything I need? Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center’s Wilderness Investigations A Subject-Integrated Curriculum for Grades 5 - 8 Tips to Help Facilitate Successful Outdoor Experiences for Students Introduction Participant leadership, organizational strategies, and safety concerns are somewhat different when teachers expand classrooms to include outdoor settings. There are, however, several considerations that, if used, may insure a more productive, safe, and enjoyable experience for students and teachers. The following guidelines will help teachers meet their educational, leadership and safety objectives. Not every guideline is applicable to every outdoor teaching situation. Use the following Guidelines as a checklist to help you prepare for and facilitate your next Wilderness Investigation experience. Guideline Flow Chart Have specific and Plan carefully, Know your outdoor realistic goals and deliberately and with learning area. objectives. students in mind. Set boundaries, Keep rule list short, Be sure to consider articulate expectations, reasonable and to special participant and address impacts. the point. needs. Make transitions Respect works Share responsibility smooth and logistics both ways. easy to follow. 179 Guideline Details Guideline #1: Have specific and realistic goals and objectives Outdoor learning experiences should have well thought out goals (both physical and educational) so that student time is well spent and use of the outdoor setting can be seen as the best possible use of time and energy. If you know your students you will be able to set specific goals suited to the needs of everyone. Guideline #2: Plan carefully, deliberately and always with students in mind Teachers who wing it often fail to meet their goals and are less able to take full advantage of unexpected teaching/leadership opportunities that may arise in outdoor settings. Be deliberate about your planning and then let go when something better comes up. If you have planned well you will return more easily when the time is right. Good planning includes consideration of the needs of students and how to involve adult volunteers. If planning as a team, be respectful of one another’s ideas, strengths, and insights and incorporate as many as possible. Guideline #3: Know your outdoor learning area Teachers who lead activities in outdoor settings need to visit the outdoor location well in advance of the activity so that they understand special circumstances and opportunities presented by the place (safety, noise, travel time, etc.) and are able to address and utilize them. In designated wilderness this includes knowing rules and regulations that address maximum group size, area closures for restoration or safety, special wildlife considerations and so forth. Guideline #4: Be sure to consider special student needs All students (and even adult volunteers) have special needs. Some are obvious and some less so. Consider these special needs (physical, behavioral, learning, etc.) as you consider where to go and what to do. These needs change from group-to-group, year-to-year and place-to-place. Don’t base current outdoor activity plans on previous experiences only. Guideline #5: Keep the outdoor rule list short, reasonable and to the point You may feel uncomfortable even thinking about rules since these outdoor activities are meant to be fun. Call them rules, guidelines, or recommendations but have some ideas in mind at the very least. You won’t need a lot them in the outdoor setting and they will only be meaningful if they really matter and are reasonable. Always be clear and respectful in rule presentations. Allow adult assistants to help you with reminders or, sometimes, consequences. You will need fewer rules if you keep participants busy with meaningful tasks/activities and if you have planned carefully. 180 Guideline #6: Set boundaries, articulate expectations and address impacts The following areas deserve special attention and communication with and to students: • It will sometimes be important for teachers to set physical and behavioral boundaries for students. By stating boundaries up front and explaining why (when appropriate) students can be successful because they won’t always have to second-guess where to go and how to act. • The teacher who articulates what they expect as behavioral and educational outcomes is much more likely to get what they need. The outdoor activity setting is, for some, a new learning atmosphere and one that requires a direct approach by teaches so that students can adapt their own learning paradigms. • Be sure to address potential harmful impacts on the outdoor setting in your planning and then, based on your knowledge of the place, articulate appropriate behaviors so that negative impacts can be minimized. Guideline #7: Make transitions smooth and logistical instructions easy to follow Teachers sometimes get in trouble when transition times are not well thought out and logistical instructions are not explained in simple and easy-to-understand language. Visualize these important periods and be prepared to communicate directly and clearly with participants BEFORE the transition happens. Guideline #8: Respect works both ways Teachers who want their young (and older) participants to respect them, the outdoor experience, and the places where outdoor activity takes place must always realize that if they show respect their charges are much more likely to do the same. Respect the students by being well prepared, open to learning from them, and do the positive little things (picking up a dropped paper, avoiding negative behaviors) that they will notice and emulate. Guideline #9: Share responsibility Allow students and adult helpers to share as much responsibility as possible. This may be as little as helping to carry equipment, motivating others during difficult times, or as big as teaching a concept. Take advantage of the skills others have. More often than not, the young person who sometimes challenges you can become an ally if they are allowed to contribute to the group’s success. However, if you expect a participant (young or old) to teach, lead, use special equipment or skills, etc. be sure to train them so that they can be successful and have a positive experience. 181 182 WILDERNESS ACT Public Law 88-577 (16 U.S. C. 1131-1136) 88th Congress, Second Session September 3, 1964 AN ACT To establish a National Wilderness Preservation System for the permanent good of the whole people, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. Short Title Section 1. This Act may be cited as the "Wilderness Act." WILDERNESS SYSTEM ESTABLISHED STATEMENT OF POLICY Section 2.(a) In order to assure that an increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement and growing mechanization, does not occupy and modify all areas within the United States and its possessions, leaving no lands designated for preservation and protection in their natural condition, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the Congress to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness. For this purpose there is hereby established a National Wilderness Preservation System to be composed of federally owned areas designated by Congress as ''wilderness areas'', and these shall be administered for the use and enjoyment of the American people in such manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness, and so as to provide for the protection of these areas, the preservation of their wilderness character, and for the gathering and dissemination of information regarding their use and enjoyment as wilderness; and no Federal lands shall be designated as ''wilderness areas'' except as provided for in this Act or by a subsequent Act. (b) The inclusion of an area in the National Wilderness Preservation System notwithstanding, the area shall continue to be managed by the Department and agency having jurisdiction thereover immediately before its inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System unless otherwise provided by Act of Congress. No appropriation shall be available for the payment of expenses or salaries for the administration of the National Wilderness Preservation System as a separate unit nor shall any appropriations be available for additional personnel stated as being required solely for the purpose of managing or administering areas solely because they are included within the National Wilderness Preservation System. DEFINITION OF WILDERNESS (c) A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain. An area of wilderness is further defined to mean in this Act an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions and which (1) generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man's work substantially unnoticeable; (2) has outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation; (3) has at least five thousand acres of land or is of sufficient size as to make practicable its preservation and use in an unimpaired