Outdoor ed – MUIR

Archery

During this semester of Muir, we participated in many archery sessions on the oval. We had an instructor to teach us the correct techniques, as well as different skills through games. Each week, the distance we were shooting from changed to improve our capabilities, and we also did a cloud shoot. I used the capability of being self-aware, as archery can be dangerous if not paying attention. I also had to be resilient if I had gotten a bad score in a certain round, as I knew I could improve.

rottnest camp

Snorkeling

In preparation for our Rottnest camp, our class did sessions in the aquatic center to train ourselves. Starting from the basics of learning how to properly swim and breathe with snorkeling equipment, we gained skills by participating in different games, pushing us out of our comfort zone. This would prepare us correctly for Rottnest as these skills were needed in an ocean environment.

At the camp, snorkeling was the main focus. I had to use the skills learned in class to be able to participate. As we had the struggles of being pushed around onto the reef due to the current, I used the capability of resilience to continue snorkeling. I also had to use effective communication and teamwork with my partner to make sure we were both safe

Orienteering

We participated in orienteering on and off the campus, mostly at different parks. We were sent off in groups of three or four to maintain everyones safety, and had 1-2 hours to complete the course. to learn these skills, we had to pay close attention on how to use a compass and mark bearings, in order to get from one place to the next.

A day trip to Jorgensen Park was also organised, in which we were in a unfamiliar environment where we had to pay special attention. since this was a public park, we had to use the capabilities of being ethical as well as in general nondisruptive to the public. This trip tested our skills as it was much more possibility to get lost.

Leave no trace

Leave no trace was a very important part of the Outdoor ed course, as it is important in each course we used in muir this semester. It means leaving the space you used how you found it, or cleaner. we made sure we did this by participating in an ’emu bob’ to collect any rubbish we left behind or was left there by others. We did this on any excursion we went to, including the rottnest camp and jorgensen park. In rottnest, we made sure to not feed any of the quokkas or other wildlife by not dropping food/picking it up. In Jorgensen park, we picked up any rubbish we saw and made sure not to tread on any plants

Science Engineering Challenge

This term in science, our task was to research and design an earthquake proof building out of spaghetti and BluTack. The first step was to find strong shapes and find out more about earthquake buildings. We found that the strongest shape was a triangle, so we added as many triangles into the design as possible, including the base, crossbeams, and levels. We had to stay inside of a budget as well as remaining over 60cm tall, (before and after testing). After fully constructing and testing the spaghetti tower on an earthquake simulation table we had to assess the tower (fallen or standing) for flaws and ways to improve. After making the reasonable changes, it was tested again. We chose this design of a tower in the shape of an isosceles triangle. From our research showed that a triangle is the strongest shape. A triangle would also be cheaper than a shape with more sides because it uses less materials. We added crossbeams to the bottom layers to give it extra support, but we didn’t add one to the highest layer to lake it as light at possible.

When budgeting for the tower, we had to keep in mind that…

  • 10cm spaghetti is $1
  • 25cm spaghetti is $2.5
  • 1g BluTack is $1
  • The base had to be within 30cm x 30cm
  • The tower had to remain above 60cm before and after testing

For our budget, we spent $13 on BluTack, $45.50 on spaghetti and had $1.50 left over.

The damage that the building was left with after the simulated earthquake was predominantly caused by the embellishment on the top. The two grams of BluTack was too much for the middle layer to withstand. this damage was seen after 5-10 seconds, and only the higher two layers fell. The base was strong and stayed stable, but the joints were unstable.

When rebuilding, the first change we made was the way we built it. Instead of building it up, we constructed it modularly. This meant we built each of the layers separately then stacked them. this changed the build because it was more secure. there ended up being more BluTack on the joints because of this and there were less holes in BluTack too. The removal of the embellishment also greatly improved it up until the last stage of testing. It removed the excess weight, so the tower could stay up for longer.

After making these changes to the tower, it remained standing for a lot longer. The embellishment not being on the top made a large impact on this, and the reason it fell was not due to the weight disproportion. It lasted through the simulated P waves and S waves, but in the surface wave the top half of the tower fell off. I think this was due to the joints between the base and middle layer.  

If I were to do this task again, I would once again build it modularly to remain stability, just add as much BluTack possible to the lower joints.

Year 9 Camp Kalbarri

Leadership is an important skill for both school and life after. It gives the ability to work effectively and be confident about taking responsibility. Year 9 Camp was a 6-day long adventure at Kalbarri that helped me, and many other people improve their teamwork and leadership skills.

During year 9 camp, I displayed leadership through many ways, one of which being organising and giving instructions to my group about packing the food for the week. This job was not given to me as a leader, but I saw that no one was stepping up to help collect and sort our food. This originally was already taking almost an hour to do. My group didn’t have any sort of plan, but after I took the role as the leader we had somewhat of a plan.

I began to give people different roles to collect the foods, as well as collecting them myself and our group was working a lot better. Piles of carrots and tomatoes and mushrooms were all laid out ready to be packed away. For this task I had to always be speaking loudly and clearly to give instructions. A difficult part of this was speaking to everyone who I didn’t usually talk to and trying not to sound bossy. When giving instructions, I felt like I was just telling everyone what to do and I felt bad about it. I had worked through this challenge by letting people decide what to get at the beginning, and just getting them to tell me what they are getting to make sure we don’t double up.

Through this experience I was able to develop my leadership skills as I was able to gain confidence in organising and speaking to larger groups. This will help me in the future if I want to take up any opportunities within leadership at the school.

Camp

Related image
This was the abseiling tower that year 7 was set to accomplish. The small side (the one being viewed now) is nine meters tall. The one behind it was twenty meters tall. Everyone in each group had the opportunity to go on both. To get up, you went on a human elevator. On top of the taller tower was an amazing view. You could see all the way down the mountain range.

The camp was a fun experience that all of the year sevens got to enjoy. We challenged ourselves in many ways, with rock climbing, abseiling, the pamper pole, and more fun activities. Everyone had to get out of their comfort zone in at least one activity. I know it was a challenge for me to get up the pamper pole and jumping off, but for others, it might have been easy, and their challenge was doing it as fast as they can.  We had to use persistence when we were walking to our campsite because it was 3 and a half hours. We showed creativity when making our bags and doing screen printing. In fishing, we showed resilience and also patience because fishing takes a lot of time. We were in groups that we haven’t been in to expand our friendship groups in any way possible (day groups, dorms, tents, and more).

Cheerleading

Most people think that cheer-leading is holding poms poms and cheering for an american football game, or at least that’s what the movies make is seem. I do all-star cheer which includes tumbling, jumps and stunting. It needs lots of persistence to do, as well as resilience if you get hurt, and teamwork. Last year our team won three firsts, and a third. So far this year we have won two firsts and a second. We also have a competition on the weekend, even though we had one two weeks ago.