It is most important that the outdoor education experience both complements and supplements the school's curriculum. The program at Mansfield Outdoor Centre does this in many ways. 1. All our programs focus on both the knowledge of basic concepts as well as broad based skills. For example, in Pond/Small Creatures , students investigate plant-animal relationships by catching, identifying, studying and classifying various small creatures (e.g. millipede, snail, slug, worm, beetles) while developing their skills in observation, investigation and exploration. In the same program, they also develop various language skills by describing their observations and presenting their discoveries both orally and in informal written reports. 2. Both small group and individual learning experiences are used and, more importantly , learning-by-doing is emphasized. Hands-on activities are key to all our programs. For instance, in Orienteering , after a brief introduction by the instructor, the students, in groups of 2, use their newly acquired skills of map and compass to travel across fields and forests to find markers. In Woodland Survival , students in groups of 4-5 will build a fire and a survival shelter with their own hands. 3. Students are solving problems and making responsible decisions using critical and creative thinking in many of our programs. This is occurring continually as students live, eat, sleep and learn together in a residential setting. It also occurs all the academic programs. For example in The Settlers families of 3 students need to make responsible decisions to function effectively together in order to survive in the year 1854. 4. Students have many opportunities to practice valuable living skills. For example, they are constantly working together on simple tasks like setting the table with their cabin group or complex ones like finding their way through the forest with a map and compass. Students are always learning to interact effectively with others, be it at a meal, or during personal time at the volleyball net or at bedtime with their fellow cabin mates. This process often begins during their first program, called Initiative Tasks/Games , which emphasizes group cooperation and initiative and continues throughout all the programs. 5. Students are also given opportunities to act as responsible citizens by demonstrating care, concern and a respect for all living things and the environment. They do this in simple ways like taking out the compost and re-cycling the cardboard or in more detailed ways like studying the delicate balance of an eco-system like the pond or the forest. Inherent in our overall residential program is the belief that for every right there is a responsibility. 6. The underlying theme of many of the programs is to show students the diversity of living things and the interactions within eco-systems . As an example, in Instincts for Survival , students see this overall system by role-playing omnivores, carnivores, herbivores and experience first hand food chains, food webs, camouflage and predator-prey relationships. 7. Each of our programs has specific objectives (both knowledge and skills) from various curriculum areas. For example, The Fur Trade program involves the students in effective communication skills (speaking, writing, listening), in mathematics (bartering, totaling credits and debits, calculating ratios), in physical education (walking and/or running 1-2 km.), and in history (identifying, describing and role-playing the fur traders in the 1770's). Combining and relating learning experiences from various subject areas is common to all our programs. 8. Ideally learning takes place not only in the school and in the home but also extends beyond this into the community. The wider learning environment of Mansfield Outdoor Centre is part of the curriculum since it draws upon the expertise and skills of people outside the community to contribute to the students' development of knowledge, skills and values as set out by the Ministry. 9. Teachers use a variety of methods to accurately assess students. Seeing students in a total-living situation, like Mansfield Outdoor Centre, not only improves teacher/student rapport but it also gives the teacher the chance to observe, learn about and assess students in a very different yet natural setting other than the usual formal classroom situation. 10. Active participation and daily physical activity are a part of each of our programs. For example, our Cross- Country Ski program helps students develop such aspects of physical fitness as flexibility, agility, balance and cardiovascular endurance. Most other programs, like Settlers , Orienteering and Wolf Prowl also include a physical activity component. 11. During their entire residential trip, students are given excellent opportunities to develop language, thinking and social and living skills. These skills develop best when students use them for real purposes and in real situations, as exists at Mansfield Outdoor Centre. Mansfield is a mix of academic pursuits, physical and recreational activities and social and emotional growth and development and, most importantly, each is inseparable from the other. |