Throughout the term, I have developed a variety of skills in our Lock class. The three areas that we have developed our learning in are:

• Rock climbing/ knots
• Kayaking
• Bush cooking

These activities have allowed me to develop a variety of skills and capabilities including my problem-solving capabilities, ethical capabilities and my organisational capabilities.

The rock climbing and knot tying unit was an entirely new experience for me as the most experience I have had with rock climbing was on year 9 camp. I enjoyed this unit because I tried things that I haven’t tried before and enjoyed myself while I did the unit. This was a unit where each individual had to take on a huge amount of responsibility for the safety of themselves and others, and it was important to not be too hasty even though rock climbing was an exciting prospect. Knot tying challenged my problem-solving skills as it took a lot of repetition and peer feedback to correct my knots. I struggled most with dressing the figure 8 knot and I needed lots of feedback from Ms Stieber and my classmates to correct my knot.

Kayaking was a fun unit in which I developed my organisational capabilities alongside the practical aspect of kayaking. This was another unit in which we were required to focus on safety procedures before we could get completely stuck into the fun part. We enjoyed a variety of kayaking activities, including seal launches from the Rossmoyne foreshore jetty, going for longer kayaking journeys, flipping underwater and playing canoe polo. My favourite activity to partake in was definitely the canoe polo because it required a lot of the skills we had learnt including emergency stops and quick turns in a fun environment. This unit confronted my organisational skills because we had to be in a specific place at a specific time and if I wasn’t there, I wouldn’t be able to participate in kayaking. It also required me to pack things the night before and remember to bring them the next day. On our one-day camp to Dwellingup, we got to implement some of the skills we had learnt in kayaking by doing a huge seal launch down the steps into the water. When we were on the water, Mr Fletcher allowed us some time to reflect on our camp, including the leave no trace aspect of our learning. We were able to identify that by launching our kayaks off the steps instead of launching them off the riverbanks was beneficial to the environment, as it left the riverbank intact and prevented us from dragging sand into the river.

Bush cooking has so far been my most enjoyable unit. This unit requires us to plan the meals that we will cook and bring the required ingredients and equipment to prepare our meal. This has also tied in with what we have been learning about Leave No Trace. Leave No Trace has applied to our bush cooking unit in many ways, and we have been able to make simple changes to ensure that we are following leave no trace. One of the ways that we have implemented leave no trace into our bush cooking is by letting our fires burn all the way down before completely extinguishing them. This involves us only adding as much wood as we need to start the fire, and then as we need more adding it instead of adding too much at the beginning, which is a simple change that can make a big difference. Minimising campfire impacts is one of the principles of leave no trace. On our day trip to Dwellingup, we had the opportunity to do bush cooking. This required two major capabilities: organisation and problem solving. My group decided to make pancakes. Bush cooking required organisation capabilities because we had to plan our meals and make sure that we had all of the right equipment. Our pancakes were hugely successful; however we had a few road bumps that we weren’t expecting. One of them was that initially we added too much water to our pancakes. This was something that we couldn’t reverse, so we just had to adapt around it. This problem was actually easy to solve, we just used less batter and decided to make pancakes with a crêpe consistency instead! Another problem that we encountered was that we forgot to bring a frypan. Luckily, the campsites we were at had a hot plate attached to the campfire, so we were able to use that instead. Mr Zaurs allowed us a moment to reflect on the importance of leave no trace, and some of the things that had been implemented to enforce the seven principles of leave no trace. The self-contained fire tins were one way that the campsite had sought to minimise campfire impacts and is important because it also helps to ensure that the fire extinguishes rather than starting a bushfire. Leave no trace is important because a lot of the wildlife at Dwellingup have become reliant on campers’ food, which inhibits their natural hunting instincts. Some of the things that Mr Zaurs and the OLP team did to ensure that we were leaving no trace were:

• Digging a hole and putting our cloth over the food scraps to ensure that no birds would eat the food
• Using our dishwashing water to extinguish our fires instead of using clean drinking water
• Everybody picked up five pieces of rubbish by their campsite

One aspect of leave no trace that the OLP team applied to our day camp was planning and preparing our trip. Although we were able to enjoy our day out and have a good time, planning is the aspect of leave no trace that would definitely require the most effort. The planning and preparing principle of leave no trace is important to keep us save as individuals, and also keep the environment safe.

The seven principles of leave no trace have been intertwined with our learning in outdoor education, and we were able to showcase our learning of these principles at our camp in Dwellingup. It was interesting to discover that things that we can do to benefit ourselves and our camping experience, such as planning for a trip, can also help protect our environment and the places on which we can camp for future generations.