Muir has offered many great opportunities from archery all the way to snorkeling out in Rotto. We start way back at the start of term 3 when we were all introduced to each other and we started orienteering. It was something I was familiar with as I used to orienteer before but I had never gone out with my peers before into the wilderness. We first started by using the first few weeks by getting familiar with compasses and maps. While we were learning about that we were also doing archery each Friday with a woman called Mary. Each week she taught us techniques and strategies to get better at aiming for the bullseye. Over time we progressively brought the target further and further and we eventually went free firing where we had the targets at least 70 meters away and we aimed up and tried to aim it as close as possible to the golden target.
Orienteering took all of term 3. We use the first 5 weeks mostly familiarising ourselves with charting, compass work, and setting bearings. We spent most of the lessons in the class studying this or outside the ISC doing courses around the school. After the first 5 weeks, we started exploring different places and tracks outside of school. We did this to slowly prepare us for Jorgensen which was a course outside of school which was massive and tricky to navigate around. When it got to the day it was pretty simple. We didn’t hesitate or were scared to venture around the bushlands to find where the different markers were.
The last thing we did to the end of the subject was snorkeling. This was easily the most demanding out of all the things we did in MUIR. Not only was it freezing for all the times we went snorkeling but it was hard to get used to being able to breathe underwater. We started snorkeling prep in the All Saints pool for the first 4 weeks of term 4. We did some drills, and exercises and learned how to communicate underwater in case of an emergency. After we learn the basics we went for our first proper snorkel at Coogee. The conditions were really rough but we managed to learn the essential skills to have a great snorkel a Rotto. When it got to days when we went snorkeling at Rotto, we were all a bit concerned if we should go or not because it was very cold but we had a try and it was the best experience. We had a great time and we could see many fish.
Throughout all of these activities, we have followed the idea of leave no trace. We learned about it alot in class and it is when after you leave a place of nature that you used, you leave it even better than you found it. Leaving no trace is important as our generation needs to start taking care of our environment. We followed this by doing an emu bob after we left every site we visited so we left no rubbish behind.