Muir is an outdoor ed class that involves Orienteering, Archery and Snorkelling and has many fun activities outside of the classroom. For a lot of this class, we got to go to places such as; Jorgensen, Manning park, Piney lakes, Coogee and The Rottnest camp in Term 4.
Orienteering –
Orienteering was the focus for the start of this course. We started off by learning how to use a compass, what bearings are, finding out our pacing, what we would actually be finding, and how to use a map.
Early into the lessons, we walked around the oval using cones and finding bearings to make sure we were accurate enough to go somewhere else, we did lots of games to practice in the first few weeks. Once we were confident that we knew what we were doing, we went to Piney Lakes. This was a park with lots of trees and bush land that we were orienteering in. There were 2 courses, the ‘easy’ path and the more difficult path. Once we had finished the easy path, we could move on to the harder course. Later on, we also visited Manning Park where we did some more courses as well. We went through these courses in groups of three which was good so we could make sure we knew that we were accurate. At the very end of Term 3, Everyone went to Jorgensen which was the biggest orienteering course but, sadly, I couldn’t go.
Archery –
One of the first things we learnt in Muir was Archery. Every week on Mondays and Thursdays and sometimes our double on Tuesday, we had an Archery instructor (Mary) come and teach us more about archery. We started off with the basics, like finding a Bow that is your size and writing it down so we could keep that one for the time we had. We also went through how to do archery and the do’s and don’ts. We started off very close to the target, and we wrote down our scores each time. We learned about grouping and we practiced while we were close. Progressively, we got further, and further away from the target, and we had different challenges along the way, such as: Shooting in the air to aim for distance, blindfolded whilst shooting, and so on.
Archery was very fun, and I enjoyed this the most as I was fast to pick it up and it was fun to make it a competition with my friends.
Snorkelling –
At the end of Term 3 and the start of Term 4, we started practicing snorkelling in the pool. This consisted of the swim test (14 laps) and basic snorkelling skills. This taught us how to go under with a snorkel, how to make the snorkel mask less foggy underwater, and so on. We also played some team building games to make sure we felt safe in the water as when we were snorkelling, we had to be a team. Before we went out to other places than the school, we had to learn the term ‘Safe Snorkel’ Which stands for –
S – Safety
A – Accidents
F – First aid
E – Emergency
S – Sun
N – Nutrition
O – Ocean
R – Reef
K – Keep safe
E – Environment
L – Leave no trace
We went to Coogee to snorkel and to practice outside of the pool. This was very fun as we got to snorkel around the shipwreck. It was quite rough and wavy but, it wasn’t that cold especially with our wetsuits.
Rottenest Camp –
Once we got there, we had a 3km walk to a bay to snorkel called Little Parakeet and snorkelled in class groups. We had the opportunity to snorkel twice, but I only went once because I was freezing cold. There was also an option to do a swim through whilst we were snorkelling which was really cool and looked pretty. We then had a 2km walk to where we were staying, and we set up our tents. We then went on an amazing race around Rotto which was so fun, and it was Halloween so on the way, we went trick or treating to 2 houses. When we got back, we had realised that we left our tent open and a quokka had gotten in there and eaten my chips, and we all had to find a way to get it out. We then had a few hours to ourselves to do what we wanted and then we ate barbeque for dinner.
Then next day, we woke up and packed up our tents and our bags so they could go onto the ferry, and we got free time until the sun was out a bit more. Then we went to the basin to snorkel for the last time, this was really nice as there was lots of animals and the scenery was very pretty. This time wasn’t as cold as it was a bit nicer of a day and we only had to go in once. After this we had a rinse off and we went to the bakery. For lunch, we had the option to have Bakery, Subway or Simmos and we had 1hr and 30mins to eat lunch and relax before the ferry. Then we got on the ferry and went home.
Capabilities –
I had to be very organised during muir as I had to make sure I knew when to bring my snorkelling gear, where I had to be (classroom, oval, pool) and I had to make sure I always had the right equipment. I had to use my leadership skills when we were orienteering as I had to make sure my group was all on the same page and we all had the same answers. At one point, we all had different bearings and had to measure them again, so they were accurate. Problem solving was used a lot during muir when we got lost, we had to find a way back, when we were snorkelling and we couldn’t go one way, so we had to find another and more.
Leave No Trace –
We had to make sure that we left the environment how we found it or even better, so that we wouldn’t ruin anything. We made sure to not drop any rubbish, and if you do, pick it up, not to touch the coral or it will kill it, don’t take any shells home, and we had to do an emu bob before leaving every area we went to. I think this is very important because keeping our environment clean and healthy so we can help endangered species, help preserve wild life and reduce pollution.
