Hiking and Camping Education Course Offered to High School Students
Keith Williams has taken outdoor education to a whole new lever.
As part of New Oxford High School’s wilderness literature class, Williams drops into the school’s auditorium, in a climber’s harness, from the catwalk 40 feet up. This demonstration of hiking and rock-climbing equipment is just part of the cross-curricular class combining literature and science. The class is taught by both English teacher Williams and biology teacher Deb Zurenda.
This junior level class was created to open up students to the study of fiction and non-fiction of the outdoors and wilderness, as well as delve into the science end of camping. Topics discussed during the course include the animal species seen here and throughout the country, what plants are edible, the outdoors and choosing proper hiking, climbing and camping gear, and the components of an ecosystem. The class activities take place in large part outdoors; several hikes and camping trips are taken throughout the year so that students can put their knowledge to the test.
In the classroom, students make rafts out of rubberized foam to learn floatation 101. They are quizzed on camping equipment and learn what they needed to know for the nine-day trip, such as what sleeping bag is best in what conditions.
Both in the classroom and during their outdoor camping or hiking trips, the class reads literature and wilderness journals like John Wesley Powell’s “Exploration of the Colorado River” and essays by David Petersen. As they read these accounts, students are required to look at nature around them and apply what they read to what they see.
“We want them (students) to be effective stewards of their environment and to be preservationists,” Williams said about what he hopes students take from the class. “(Nature) is not just about them. We want them to understand the big picture.”
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