Wilderness Adventure Field Trips: Experience the Wild!
My students need to experience the outdoors to expand their horizons, improve their critical thinking skills, and develop an appreciation for nature.
$957 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
"Must we always teach our children with books? Let them look at the stars and the mountains above. Let them look at the waters and the trees and flowers on Earth. Then they will begin to think, and to think is the beginning of a real education." ~David Polis
My school is a high poverty school, with over 75% on free/reduced lunch.
In addition, about half are Hispanic English-language learners. My students are amazing and eager to learn, but have very limited life experiences. The teachers spend a lot of class time explaining context: when the curriculum talks about camping, for instance, they first have to explain what camping is, and how it's different from living in your car.
As a No Excuses University school, we tell our students they are all going to college, and each classroom has adopted a different university. As the School Counselor, I want to help prepare our students for college by giving them opportunities to improve their concentration, build their observation skills, and increase their ability to problem-solve. I also want to prepare them socially by providing them with a wide variety of experiences that they otherwise would not have. This can all be accomplished through our Wilderness Adventure Club field trips.
My Project
My students will have the opportunity to learn about different types of public lands and basic survival/outdoor skills through our after-school Wilderness Adventure Club. They will then put this information to use in four hands-on learning experiences/field trips: first, an easy day trip to a Regional Park just down the road, then a short day hike to an old lookout tower, next an all-day hike/picnic to a waterfall, ending with the Grand Finale Culminating Project: an overnight camping adventure in the National Forest. (All hiking/camping gear is provided for free through a local non-profit's lending library.) Students will build their listening and observation skills through plant and animal identification, star gazing, and team building exercises. They will learn what a lookout tower and a waterfall look like, how to set up a tent, campfire safety, as well as the life-changing opportunity to learn about s'mores!
Research studies tell us that exploring nature improves children's awareness, reasoning, observation skills, concentration, cognitive and problem-solving abilities.
I know that after these field trips, my students will never be the same!
Besides expanding their life experiences and giving them opportunities to grow and lead, my students will hopefully develop an appreciation and a sense of ownership for the public lands that belong to them.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Dittemore and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
