Throughout this semester in Muir, we learnt and developed our skills in three main areas: archery, orienteering and snorkelling. During the course I was challenged both physically, with having new skills to learn and mentally when challenges arose. Another key part of the subject was that we had to learn about and apply ‘leave no trace’ when we went outside for our activities.

Archery

Archery is something I’ve always enjoyed doing, this unit has allowed me to develop those skills and learn some new techniques. At the beginning of the course we met with Mary, who helped us learn the basics. We focused on simply hitting the target and becoming used to wielding the bow, we started quite close and slowly got further from the targets. Unfortunately, as it was during winter some of the weather conditions prevented some lessons from going ahead or being delayed. The best memory in archery was the final lesson where we were able to do multiple games which allowed us to have fun but also test our accuracy on many different types of targets. Throughout the archery course three capabilities I used were resilience when I missed a few shots I had to keep persevering and shooting, self-awareness as I had to make sure it was safe to shoot and collect my arrows, and effective communication as we had to work together to improve our technique. In the future I would like to improve on having more consistency. I found that whilst I was able to put arrows in the bullseye and the yellow zone that I would often have shots and round which either missed the target or shot wide. I can improve on this by practicing and also by making sure my shooting stance and technique are the same each time.

Orienteering

In this course we learnt the basics of using a compass and reading maps. Before entering the course, I had little skill or experience with the techniques however I found that once I was able to grasp them, I could apply them to many different situations. We worked on multiple different sites for the orienteering, starting with simple ones within the school then building up to an all-day excursion to Jorgensen Park. These different locations allowed us to start by using both the compass and map but also landmarks to find our way around the courses to being in bushland and relying on our orienteering skills completely. The three capabilities I used whilst orienteering were, effective communication when we were using the compass to find the direction and when looking for the clue, problem solving when we couldn’t exactly find the clue or a direct path to travel along so we had to find another way around and leadership by helping those I worked with in the different skills we needed to know. In the future I want to improve on my speed when doing the courses, I feel that when I was completing them my group and I got distracted and could have stayed on task more.

Snorkelling

Despite having experience snorkelling before this course meant that I was able to develop some more skills and most practice my diving. We began the course in the pool, learning simple skills such as emptying your mask and getting used to the breathing. We then went out and did a trip to Coogee beach where we snorkelled over the shipwreck. Despite the cold and rough weather it allowed us to be prepared for snorkelling on our 2 day camp at Rottnest Island. On the camp we did two main snorkelling trips, the first to Little Parakeet Bay and the second at the Basin. The weather conditions were windy however having a wetsuit on allowed for the water to not be too uncomfortable. On the first day we did a swim through, meaning that we dived down and snorkelled through a tunnel, it was such a cool experience and my favourite memory from the snorkelling course. On Rottnest there were a variety of fish and small coral which were amazing to look at. Throughout the course 3 capabilities that I used the most were, organisation by remembering which sessions we had to bring our equipment, resilience when my diving and equalization didn’t work at first but I kept persisting and self-awareness as I had to try not to get into other peoples space and when coming up from a dive making sure no one is on top of you. In the future I want to continue to work on my diving as I began to get it in the end of the camp but I can become more skilled in it.

Leave No Trace

Leave no trace is an important part of the outdoor ed course, and it is spread over all topics. It is a principle that you leave the space as you found it or even cleaner. This is because if you just leave your rubbish there then it means that the environment would just become worse and if you only cleaned up your own rubbish then the environment would only stay the same and not improve. We applied this concept throughout many of the courses we completed.

In archery leave no trace was hard to put into place as we mostly simply used to the same arrows and targets on the school grounds. However, when we played games that involved balloons, paper, or chocolate to put all the wrappers and rubbish away in the bins to make sure we didn’t leave any balloon scraps.

In orienteering we made sure that if we ate on our small trips to the parks then we put in the bin. When walking around we also made sure to stay on the paths and wash our feet when walking in dieback areas. On our excursion to Jorgensen Park, we made sure to continue doing the same thing, but once the day was over we completed an emu bob over our main area for the day.

When snorkelling we were mostly in the ASC pool that didn’t involve anything disposable. However, on our camp we made sure to complete emu bobs at our beach sites and the camp site to pick up anything we had left behind and also other people’s rubbish to leave the place cleaner then we found it. We also made sure to not touch or stand on the reefs and take anything for souvenirs. Another part was staying on the cleared paths both in and out of the water to make sure not to damage the environment. As Quokkas were part of the wildlife we made sure not to touch or feed them when interacting with them throughout the camp.