What were your goals for the subject? Did you achieve them?

Throughout term three and term four, My peers and I were given the opportunity of completing the Muir elective, and today I will be explaining, examining, and analyzing the process and roadblocks I faced during this semester. A bit of background information on the Muir elective: this elective involves Orienteering, Archery, and Snorkelling. My goals for this subject were to learn and discover how to orienteer, and, read and take directions using a compass. My goal for archery was to get two bullseyes out of three shots. My goal for snorkeling was to learn how to snorkel, as I am not that confident in swimming. I think I achieved 2/3 goals as I am still not too confident in orienteering.

Write about significant events that happened on camp and throughout the course

The most significant event that happened during this course was definitely learning how to snorkel, I mean I have never snorkeled before and I previously had a fear of water and swimming in the ocean. I think that my fear of swimming originated from my not being able to swim very well abilities. I thank this elective because this elective gave me the opportunity to conquer my fear of swimming. Another significant event that happened throughout this course of Muir was increasing my hand-eye coordination and my perception skills during the archery course. Evident from the ascension of my archery points over the week, my points showed me that each time I practiced archery in Muir, my hand-eye coordination skills improved more and more. I think this is very significant due to me being a big basketball player and needing that hand-eye coordination for shooting the ball into the basket. For the Rottnest camp, I really enjoyed seeing the quokkas (They were so cute!).

Weather observations and conditions. How did these affect you/us? How did you manage?

In the archery course, it was clearly evident that the weather did heavily affect my archery skills, this was shown through the one lesson where it was very windy and that was the only day my score was below 100. I think that when the weather was poor, my Skills, perception, and overall abilities were decreased and not to my standard level. For orienteering, I observed that the map is not always accurate, this is due to the reason that over time, due to erosion and environmental change, the landscape changes over time, and the map will never always be 100% accurate.

Outline any plants and animals you saw (flora and Fauna)

I did not get to see many wildlife animals during archery or orienteering, however, while snorkeling at Rottnest and on the camp, I saw many animals and plants that intrigued and fascinated me For example, the most popular animal that was outlined was the native animal to Rottnest Island, the Quokka. The Quokka. I think that the quokka is quite an interesting animal. due to the Quokka not having many predators, they have developed such an innocent behavior and it is evident that they are very friendly with humans. What intrigued me the most was seeing the baby stingray and the orange octopus tentacle. that really raised my thinking about what is in the ocean.

3 capabilities you have used during your time in Muir and provide examples.

The three most significant capabilities were definitely effective communication, resilience, and Self-awareness. I think communication was the most important capability I used during the Muir camp and elective. Effective communication is where you can fully understand what someone wants, why they want it and help each other so the best is brought out. I believe the time when I used effective communication at its fullest potential is during the Muir camp. When we arrived at Rottnest, it is incredibly important to make sure you are actively communicating with each other so no one is lost, hurt, or in danger. During the snorkel at the basin, (due to me not being the greatest swimmer), my buddy Seth and I made sure to use the universal hand signals that Mrs. Stieber taught us every 1 or 2 minutes. Whether that be him or I checking on each other with the “are you ok” signal, or the “look over there, there is a baby stingray signal!” Resilience is also another important capability that I used to ensure that I enjoyed the camp the most. I personally believe you cannot properly teach resilience and I think that resilience comes with experience. Resilience is the ability to adapt to difficult situations. As most likely the majority of the other Muir members said in their E-portfolio, it was a very big challenge to get in the water at Rottnest due to the extreme temperature conditions. I have taken cold showers before but I must say putting my body in that water at Rottnest was a great challenge for me.

One thing I learned about being resilient was from Mr. Jamison, how having an open mindset can change your perspective on how you look at the temperature of the water, for example, instead of saying the water is cold, you can say the water is fresh! I used resilience to the best ability I could due to the reason that I wanted to keep pushing through the cold water and go snorkeling for the first time in my life. I believe that being self-aware was the last big capability that I used during the Muir camp. Being self-aware means that you understand what your limits are when to step out of your boundaries and when to not. I think that I really needed to use this capability the most during the camp due to the reason that I have previously had a fear of water and I have never gone out into the ocean before in my life. I realized that I am not the most confident swimmer so Mrs. Stieber recommended I use the pool noodle while I go out into the ocean. Although it is a bit embarrassing using a pool noodle, I understand my limits and I did not really mind what people thought of me at the end of the day, everybody congratulated me on how well I did in the snorkeling which made me really happy.

“camp and elective photos on the separate document”

THE LEAVE NO TRACE PRINCIPLES.

The LNT principles are about leaving no trace when you are out adventuring in the wilderness, some principles include…

• Plan Ahead and Prepare. Know the regulations and special concerns for the area you’ll visit. …
• Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces. …
• Dispose of Waste Properly. …
• Leave What You Find. …
• Minimize Campfire Impacts. …
• Respect Wildlife. …
• Be Considerate of Other Visitors.

The leave-no-trace principles that my peers and I used during the Muir camp were definitely “dispose of waste properly” and “Leave what you find” A great example of how we excelled at using these principles in the muir camp we would carry out an “Emu Bob” to remove any rubbish from the grounds. This involved everyone lining up shoulder-to-shoulder and slowly walking forward while collecting any trash in their path, then quickly putting it in the bin and repeating this process 2 or 3 times. I feel like this was very effective due to the reason that lining up shoulder to shoulder made us cover such a large and broad distance so we could maximize the amount of rubbish picked up. Being off campus for orienteering and snorkeling, we needed to be extra careful of our surroundings and where we walking/swimming, also picking up any rubbish that we see and putting it in the bin.  leaving things exactly as you found them- so that future generations can come and enjoy these environments for as long as possible, being selfless and considerate of everyone and everything. I think that leaving what you find is equally as important as we did not want to destroy and wildlife habitat or home as this could put these creatures in danger, so it was clear to me and all of my classmates that we should not negatively interfere with the environment.

To summarise everything that has been said, Overall, this semester doing the Muir elective for the first time was a very eye-opening thing for me, there were so many things I have learned these two terms and numerous things I have realized and experienced that I would never have had the oppurtunity to part-take in, so I am very greatful for this elective. I would 100% recommend this elective to anyone else and I had so much fun doing this class. The most memorable and fun event during this elective has got to be the overnight camp at Rotto. It was so fun snorkelling and peacefully obersving the wildlife!