Going into Lock term 1 I was hoping to learn new skills and tricks that we build my outdoor education. As apart of our Lock course we were required to learn how to tie knots, rock climb, kayak, bush cook and be environmental aware by leaving no trace. I made myself some goals when I joined Lock to participate in all the activities and learn new skills. I think I have already achieved these goals as I have participated in every activity and learnt how to bush cook and tie ropes which are new skills that can help me in the future.
Knot Tying
The first Term we learnt how to rock climb, knot tie and kayak. We learnt up to 10 different each with different purposes and different difficulties. I liked knot tying because even though it was hard at the start it was very satisfying when you’d learnt them and could do them quickly. I think this is a very useful skill because they have different uses so if I can remember them in the future there would definitely be a situation were I could use one.
Rock Climbing
We also started rock climbing which we had to learn how to safely set up and attach each other people we could even start climbing the wall. There were four different walls and each one had their own challenges. I liked how there were different walls because you could start on the easier one and then work your way up to a harder one once you had more confidence. Rock climbing required lots of perseverance for me because there were lots of hard parts on the wall that you could only really figure out by trying different techniques to get past it. I also liked rock climbing because it was more about team work than knot tying because you couldn’t just climb by yourself as you needed a belayer to support you.
Kayaking
Kayaking was the hardest activity for me as it was so different from anything I’ve done before. There were lots of different skills we had to learn in kayaking including how to go straight, turn, go backwards and do an emergency stop. Kayaking really pushed me out of my comfort zones and I am proud of myself for participating even though I found it hard.
Bush Cooking
Bush cooking was really fun for me as it was pretty easy to understand once we learnt all the basic and we got food out of it. We started off by learning how to collect sticks and how much of each different sizes we would need. Then we learnt two different techniques of how to set up a fire and keep it alive. The first week we cooked my group made pasta for the Italian theme and we forgot some of our ingredients but we still managed to create good tasting food. We also made soft tacos for the Mexican theme and it was harder than the first time cooking as we had a relief teacher and we couldn’t get the fire started. I think bush cooking was a good learning experience for me because I’ve only ever cooked outside during school camps and even then we didn’t have to make our own fire or sustain it.
Leave No Trace
Leave no trace is made up of 7 principles which purpose are to minimize the impact of our campfires of the environment and wildlife. The main leave no trace principles that we used were plan ahead and prepare, dispose of waste properly and minimizing campfire impacts. We were very careful as a class to follow these leave no trace principles as we wouldn’t leave and rubbish or food behind after cooking and we would also let out fire burn completely out before we would water it down.