Reflection #4
Daisy Lamoureux, Content from October 23rd
– Outdoor Education
What?
This week, October 23rd, we got the amazing opportunity to explore UVic’s Finnerty Gardens as a class in person. It was perfect weather, sunny and blue skies, and a great experience to meet up and discuss our experiences with outdoor education and how technology plays a role in it.
So what?
I shared with our class that the school I grew up in had an incredible outdoor education program as well as outdoor classroom space. The outdoor education program was a cross grade layout from grade 9-12, and I participated from grade 10-12 and got to build my skillset in all sorts of outdoor recreations like skiing, hiking, canoeing, rock climbing, mountain biking, and more. Apart from physical outdoor skills I expanded my team working, collaboration, problem solving, and general outdoor knowledge; even getting the chance to get certified in multiple outdoor safety and teaching courses. It was fun to get to share that with the class as it was one of my favourite parts of high school and a big part of who I am. We talked about the different resources you can use online that help you learn about and/or be safe in the outdoors and I got to learn how to use many of these in my outdoor education class.
We spent the remainder of the class time after having our class discussion exploring the garden as a cohort in search for QR codes and just exploring the nature. I had never been to Finnerty Gardens before, despite living on campus last year, so it was very wonderful to finally check it out.
Some QR codes I Found:
Outdoor Resource Apps Linked: all about birds , all about leafs , all about nature
Exploring Finnerty Gardens Vlog!
Now what?
This class supported my previous beliefs in the value and importance of bringing the outdoors into our classroom and educating our students on the worlds around us. Not only is the outdoors great for our well-beings but it opens up so many opportunities for learning and more specifically, cross-curricular learnings. We also can use time outside as an opportunity to teach kids how to be safe in the outdoors, and understand where they come from and appreciate their surroundings. Technology an be used as a tool to expand all of those teachings! I definitely want to bring outdoor education into my future classrooms.