RUNNING EXCITING EOTC PROGRAMMES Running an Exciting Education Outside the Classroom Experience - at virtually no cost and minimal risk! Teacher Notes While we would all like to take our class on an outdoor education experience to a distant and new location, the cost factor can make this prohibitive. With a little imagination, it is totally possible to plan and provide a quality EOTC experience at very little cost. Being close to home can be just as exciting and stimulating. The following ideas may be just what you are looking for to get you started. The Site To eliminate transport costs, choose a site within walking distance of the school. This could be a local race course, beach, bush area or farmer's paddock. It could also be in the school grounds, the school classroom or hall. Involve the students immediately in the selecting of the site. Ask them for suggestions. Bring out the idea that the site chosen will determine (to a certain extent) the programme you run. Planning the Programme The duration of the experience could be just a full day or an overnight stay. Have students brainstorm in groups, the activities they could take part in to have an exciting adventure and learning experience. Explain to them that it should involve activities that are not normally carried out in the classroom. It is important to involve the pupils with planning and implementation of the programme. Some Suggestions in Detail Sleeping Tents many be borrowed and shared. Students could be challenged to design and make shelters out of polythene, ropes and sticks. You may like to use the school hall or a farmer's wool shed with mattresses, camp beds, air beds or just cushions. A First Aid Challenge The scenario is that a group of trampers have been lost in the bush and your rescue group has come upon them. They are suffering from many injuries that will require immediate first aid treatment. Younger students could treat cuts, abrasions, blisters and burns. Add insect bites and hypothermia for senior students, possibly fractures. Students will need to research and learn how to treat these. Use resources of doctors, St. Johns, nurses, films, books. Students can work in pairs or groups. This could be a competitive exercise with marks given for correct treatment. Another component for seniors only, is transporting the 'injured' on makeshift stretchers and setting up an area for a helicopter rescue. Outdoor Cooking Have students learn the art of 'turfing' and building a fire place with a good draught for cooking their meals. Try tinfoil envelope cooking. This could take the form of two pre-cooked sausages, chopped up potato and carrot and a green, sealed in a tinfoil envelope with a dab of butter and seasoning. These are cooked on the embers of a fire for about ten minutes per side. A barbecue is another method of cooking. Stress safety. A hobo stove is another excellent method of cooking. Ask a Scout or Guide leader to your classroom to explain this method of cooking. You may like to consider putting down a hangi. Invite local iwi to explain to the students the process and protocol involved in the preparation and serving. Art and Craft Sketches and painting of the camp site area. Leaf and bark rubbings Outdoor Construction with fallen leaves, sticks, ropes, rocks, grass. Choose an imaginative theme such as 'A Memorial to the Lost Bush Tribe' or 'A Tower for the Sun God'. A photo study of a bush area, a stream, the forest floor, colours of nature, activities of students on the camp etc. Making of tribal masks from environmental materials. Music and Drama A Song Repertoire. Before you go on your camp. make sure the students know a range of songs that will be sung around the campfire in the evening. Drama. Have each group prepare a 'skit' or small drama to present at the 'concert'. Campfire Yarns. Have students research and learn 'yarns', legends and even jokes (check these out first) to tell around the campfire. Maori Legends. Learn local Maori legends. These could be told or even acted out. Dance and Chant. Using the environmental masks, have groups prepare a dance and chant to perform around the campfire. Listening Activities. At several time during the day, have the students sit absolutely quietly and by themselves, to just listen to all the sounds they hear around them. Make the first session one minute and increase it minute by minute for each subsequent session. Have them note down the sounds, what made them? Classify into sounds made by people, natural environmental sounds, soft, medium and loud, sounds they liked, sounds they disliked. Physical Education, Confidence Activities and Games A Night Line Course. Use a large ball of twine and wind it around trees, over obstacles, up banks and into gullies for a distance of approximately 200 metres. Students follow this course blindfolded, with a guide who gives them instructions as to the obstacles they are going to encounter. This activity really excites students and shows them how important senses other than sight are. This is often fun at night, with the guide having a torch to assist him/her. Remember the guide assists, not hinders and may only give verbal instructions and encouragement. A Wide Game Stalk the Flag. Divide the class into three or four teams. Each team has a flag and the opposition teams must try to capture it. allow five minutes for each team to hide their flag although it must be visible to stalkers from a distance of at least 10 metres. Guardians of the flag must be no closer than 10 metres from the flag. Each student has three lives, denoted by a piece of string tied to their belt or in a pocket. These are given out at the start of the game. At a whistle or bell signal the games start. Stalkers from each team must try to capture the flags and take them back to their guards. Lives are lost when a guard calls the name of a stalker and indicates the location he/she is. The life must be given to the guard and the stalker allowed to retire to safety. If all three lives are lost the stalker must return to his/her flag and become a guard. The game finishes after a predetermined time, eg twenty minutes. The winning team has the most flags and/or lives. Only guards may take lives. Orienteering. Preparing a Control Map. Take the students through this, step by step before they go on their camp. Draw the features of the boundary of the map. Add other features related by distance and direction from the boundary features. Make a key of symbols and words on the side of the map. Put 'control stickers' with a code number on each feature of the map. On the camp, students in pairs or as individuals are challenged by each other to complete the course and note the code numbers found. Task Orienteering. Make a Control Map of the area you are going to use. Have a copy for each student/group or pair. At each control centre have a card with a task the students must complete, eg count the number of branches on a tree, name the colours of the flowers etc. Science Conduct a bush study, a stream study or a study of birds, animals and insects. Do you have a lesson you would like to share with other teachers? Simply email us an attached Word, Works or PDF file and we will add it to our library. Don't forget to include your name and school so we can acknowledge your work. Click on the email icon below.