Annabel Manessis

I recently went on my lock(outdoor ed) camp in honeymoon pool, Collie from Monday to Wednesday. Through the course of the 3 days, we did rock climbing, rafting, and the amazing race. We also had to plan and cook meals in groups of 3 over the 3 days.

Organization

 Before the camp, we were required to plan our meals for all 3 days in our cooking groups. This required dividing the food bought between our cooking groups, making sure each dinner had 3 vegetables, protein, and carbohydrates. Being organized was key in this aspect of the camp, especially because you’re not only planning for yourself but for your cooking group as well. Being organized ended up being what helped us throughout the 3 days.

I also wasn’t perfect with my own organization. We were told repeatedly that the water in rafting is very cold and it is a good idea to bring a wetsuit, yet I ignored this and ended up being very cold and regretting my decision. I can use my organizational skills after this camp to start studying earlier for tests and exams and keep my room cleaner.

Resilience

Over the course of the camp, I realized that in physical activities, the mental aspect is just as important as the physical aspect. being resilient was important for me in all the activities but particularly rock climbing. When I was rock climbing, I found myself getting frustrated when I wasn’t making progress. I was halfway up the rock-climbing wall, about to give up when people started helping me by cheering for me and saying I can do it. People telling me where to place my feet and hands helped to get me to the top of the wall. Being resilient was essential in this situation and learning the mental aspect of sports has helped me every day because I am able to push myself more.

Collaboration

 I also realized after getting up the wall, that it was a team effort because if it weren’t for people helping me, I wouldn’t have gotten up the wall. Collaboration throughout the camp was essential. The great race was a great way to test teamwork skills. We were put into groups and the groups had to race to finish each activity first to win. During the amazing race, I noticed I was naturally a follower instead of a leader and it meant I ended up contributing less than others. Once I noted this, I made an effort to try and contribute ideas and skills more, once my group got to the orienteering part of the amazing race I was able to contribute more because I knew how to use a compass. Collaborative skills will be needed in everyday life like in group projects and work so I am glad that I have more awareness of when I need to step up and participate more.

Leave no trace

“Leave no trace” is something I have heard since year 7 but I didn’t realize what it was about until this camp. Before I thought it was just about not littering but after this camp, I have realized it is more about not introducing substances or behaviors into the environment that wouldn’t normally be there. For example, things that I wouldn’t even think about like leaving food on the ground or interfering with animals like chasing birds. Picking up food off the ground during cooking and ensuring no microplastics are left behind became something I was more aware of and am still aware of now, after camp.

As a piece of year 10 learning in HASS, an exhibition is being held displaying our learning. We have been given a topic and are creating a presentation on anything under it. Lily and I are doing a civics project on the events of the Ted Bundy case. This will be displayed through a mini-museum and will include a timeline and an evidence board.

Since the last progress update, Lily and I have decided to create a map that shows everywhere Ted Bundy went showing his victims, places he lives, his arrests, his escapes, and where he died. We have also had the idea to create a book of information about Ted’s life including his childhood, education, and his former girlfriend.

Throughout the project, Lily and I have needed to use capabilities to ensure everything runs smoothly. Making sure to follow these capabilities closely has been essential to our project and making sure everything gets done and is up to standard. These capabilities are:

Organization- Lily and I are both naturally disorganized people so staying organized is important for both of us. This could include having a planner for what we need to get done by a certain time and making time for us to work on the project outside of class.

Ethics- Making sure our project is ethical is very important to us. Our project is about a brutal serial killer so staying respectful to the victims is important. This will be done by ensuring our project is entirely factual and doesn’t include bias to ensure Ted isn’t seen as impressive.

Collaborative skills- Collaborative skills are important because we need to work together to complete our project. Dividing work between us and helping each other along the way has been necessary for our project.

Since our last project update, Lily and I have started putting together the map, evidence board, and timeline. Here is an example of what the map could look like:

It would include a key below is explaining each of the dots.

In the next week, we are planning to complete the map and evidence board as well as put together all the information we need for the rest of the project so that when we make the book and timeline it is easy to put it all together. We plan to complete the entire project in two weeks.

As a piece in our year 10 learning, we are able to research and build a project based upon a topic chosen, which will be showcased in term 4 through an exhibition. My project will be done in a pair with Lily Kettle. As a part of this project, we need to identify capabilities that we belive are needed. In this post I will talk about capabilities I think I will need, planning so far in the project, what we have done so far and what we are planning to do in the future.

Lily and I have chosen our topic to be civics. This will be presented through the events of the Ted Bundy case. I think the capabilities we will need are:

• Effective communiction
• Organisation
• collaborative skills
• creativity
• self- awareness
• resilience

There are many more capabilities I will need but after this first week, those are the ones I have observed. I plan to develop these skills more deeply throughout the project.

So far Lily and I have together researched the events of the Ted Bundy case in a timeline, how Ted’s education helped him as a serial killer, his girlfriend (Elizabeth Kloepfer), and just general information on Ted Bundy. Lily and I have decided to present our idea in the form of a mini-museum. The steps we have completed are creating bibliographies of our references in APA format, planned our presentation, researched everything we need to create our timeline, and began creating an evidence board. We have a clear idea of what we want our presentation to be which is drafted in the picture below:

Here is a timeline of what we have and need to do in the future:

week 9: 5 bibliographies written, research the case, plan our museum

week 10: complete other 5 bibliographies, start creating our timeline, continue on our evidence page

week 1: complete evidence board and timeline, begin writing about Teds former girlfriend and his education

the timeline will be updated past week 1 in the following progress updates.

During this first semester of 2021, I have done the Muir outdoor education for an elective. We started by snorkeling at the Omeo shipwreck in Coogee and in week 9 of the first term we went to Rottnest for the day and went snorkeling there.

Organized: being organized was an important part of snorkeling. When we went to Rottnest, I had to make sure I had all the equipment I needed. We also had to move quickly and smoothly if we all wanted to go out snorkeling multiple times. Snorkeling really helped me with my organization since I wasn’t very organized before but now I am.

Effective communication: Communicating effectively was essential to snorkeling. Not only did we have to learn communication verbally but also physically. There were certain signals that Miss Stieber taught us to follow. This included signals to come to shore or swim out further. Not communicating effectively could have led to dangerous situations so we all because good at communicating.

Collaborative: Working collaboratively was a big part of outdoor ed this semester. We were often working in groups for different activities. We did activities like relays that made us work at as a team. We were in buddies when we went to the Omeo shipwreck and when we went to Rottnest, and we had to stay together for all the time we were in the water.

Leave no trace: since we were outside a lot, we learnt about leave no trace. Leave no trace is not only about picking up after yourself and making sure you leave the space you are in the same way you found it but it is also about leaving it better than you found out. When going to Rottnest I adopted the mentality that I needed to try and pick up as much rubbish as I could.

This year the year nines were split into two groups and sent to camp Kalbarri in two rotations. These two rotations were further split into groups. This made it difficult to have friends in your group. Camp taught me lifelong skills such as teamwork and leadership.  We quickly adapted to the changes from being at home to being outside. During activities like cooking we needed to use teamwork and initiative. I had to use teamwork skills during the cooking of food. We were split into cooking groups and had to work together to cook a meal for everyone taking into account foods that people like and dislike and we also had to plan things like who was washing dishes and cutting vegetables. Not only did we use teamwork to cook the food but we had to think ahead of time and figure out who was going to pack what items of food in their bag so that when we went hiking we had everything we needed including cooking utensils such as cutting boards which I was required to organize. I had to help in organizing the distribution of weight between bags so that one bag in particular wasn’t too heavy while everyone is still carrying something. We also went on a hike which required me to be at the front of the group directing people in the right direction to walk. This was challenging at first but eventually it became easier to think about people in the group who might struggle in the area I chose to walk and choose the right path to take. I quickly found the best route to take through the narrow gorge. We organized rotating roles so that camp could run smoothly. This helped me demonstrate strong leadership skills. When it came to my job to be in charge of organising food we also ran into an issue of having a lot of waste such as plastic. I had to think of ways to get rid of rubbish without littering such as carrying around a trash bag. All of these challenges helped me build and demonstrate strong teamwork and leadership skills.