What is the Outdoor Education program?

Experiences students would have if they were a part of the outdoor education program

By: Madelyn Bell-Holman

The Outdoor Education Program is a way to get Riverside Secondary students to be active and learn about the environment while making connections with other students. It takes place in the second semester of the school year.

It is a program that anyone from Riverside Secondary in grade 10 can participate in, as long as they have a love for the wilderness and want to make new memories for years to come.

They do a variety of different activities in Outdoor Education, for example snowshoeing, swimming, canoeing and hiking. The program also helps develop skills that are important for maturity in being independant and having confidence in a group. Ms. Brandsma, the outdoor education teacher, prefers hiking, camping and canoeing as they are favourite activities.

The students bond over activities and experiences while working together as a team and developing new strategies. It is a useful skill to know how to collaborate with others and prepares them for their future jobs and careers.

It pushes the students to go out of their comfort zone of their abilities and makes them try new things and take risks. The program ran by Ms. Brandsma and Ms. McArthur who have a passion for the environment and being active.

The program has been in existence for four consecutive years and has created several memories for students and teachers. The Outdoor Education Program starts in the second semester which is the beginning of February and goes until the end of the year.

This time frame provides the class with the most consistent weather for outdoor activity. Being an outdoor program there are activities and trips that go rain or shine, so the experiences are always different and the students need to know how to adjust and make the of their time.

“It is an amazing opportunity and will continue at Riverside Secondary for years to come,” expressed Ms. Brandsma.

Reflection 

This is an article about the Outdoor education program that happens every year for grade 10 students in the second semester, ran by the teachers Ms. Brandsma and Ms. McArthur. It gives the reader a good understanding of what the program is about and what you get to experience as well as how it builds your social confident skills in a group setting. It brings value to the program with positive experiences that they can be a part of in the future years. This is a soft new article because it only affects certain students who apply for outdoor education and not the whole school. The article contains values of proximity, timeliness and currency. It contains proximity by being at Riverside Secondary school and the timeliness of it happening every year close to the time of the article being published. It is a current event that is a popular topic to talk about among the students.