This semester in outdoor ed, I have learnt many new skills and learnt many new things. I learnt about orienteering, archery and snorkeling. In orienteering I learnt how to use a compass effectively, use a map and know where to go and how to get there. In archery I learnt the right technique on how to shoot and got progressively better and better. In snorkeling I didn’t learn much but instead just practiced my already known skills and gained more experiences.
Orienteering
The first activity that we did this semester was orienteering. Orienteering required the use and skills of using compasses, distance and your location to get around. Most of the double periods we would go around to different parks and bushland and test our skills there. We would go in groups and try complete the course. Whilst sometimes we wouldn’t complete the course in time it also gave us a good time as we were out in the bush in the sun with some friends walking around. At the end of the term our class went to the hills for a day doing a course. Unfortunately I did not go as I was sick that day but I definitely believe it would have been a great experience.
Archery
The next topic that we did in muir was archery. Most single lessons in term 3 would be spent down at the oval with our lovely instructor Mary. Mary was very fun to work with and really helped me improve my archery skills. Whilst I was never perfect it was still a great experience. Archery helped to extend my comfort zone and try skills that I have never done before. After every lesson of archery I would get better and better at it except sometimes I was little inconsistent. I definitely think a couple more lessons and I would be even more better.
Snorkeling
Snorkeling for me was by far my favourite part of the outdoor ed curriculum. Although I have snorkeled many times in many places around Australia, I will never not love it. I was so grateful that we were able to snorkel at Rottnest island. You never know what you are going to see and getting that experience was definitely a highlight of this semester. We started snorkeling at the school pool so that we could practice our skills before going to coogee. At coogee I saw some stuff but the visibility and weather was not that good so it wasn’t as good as it could have been. After all this practiced we finally got to go to Rottnest for a two day camp. It was amazing. I saw so many things and despite the cold, I will never forget the experience of snorkeling and also being around friends.
Rottnest Island 😍
Capabilities
One of the capabilities that was used throughout the entire subject was leadership. Throughout snorkeling, orienteering and archery, leadership was used all the time. For example in orienteering you were just with a group and no teacher so you needed to be a leader and stay on task and work with your group in order to do the task. Or for example snorkeling with your buddy you were trusted to be a leader to your buddy and help them whenever. One of the capabilities that I learnt and expanded on was staying organised. Organisation is key in tasks and it was very obvious when people weren’t organised versus people that wear. I used organisation more then every in this subject and I am very grateful that I learnt extra things about organisation.
Leave no trace
Leaving no trace is when you are trying to be sustainable and leave no trace in the environment so it looks like you were never there. There are 7 principles in the LNT idea. Plan ahead, camp in durable spaces, dispose waste properly, leave what you find, minimize campfire impacts, respect wildlife and be considerate of others. These 7 principles are just a rough outline on how to treat our environment. After all, we only have one earth so we can’t have any do overs. Following the 7 principles of LNT take little effort but makes a huge difference. Throughout this course we have showed many actions of LNT. One of these include doing emu bobs where ever we went and especially in Rottnest. After leaving any site our class would emu bob and walk through where we sat and pick up any rubbish we found so we could leave the site exactly how we found it.
