Skyline Outdoors and Environmental Sustainability Club
We have already learned various ways to survive in the wild and reduce our impact on the environment around us. Our meetings have covered things like how to build a fire, how to build a shelter just using what you can find around you, and how to use a compass to find your way in the forest.
Our compass-orienteering meeting was especially fun and educational. First we talked about how to use the compass and how to find our way through the forest. Then I distributed compasses to each member of the group and showed them how to use it. Finally, to test the groups' knowledge, I snuck off when everyone was busy talking, and texted them a challenge: use your new skills to find me! Within a half-hour the group was able to calculate and pinpoint my location. Success!
Most of our activities involve being outside, but when conditions do not allow us to be out in the woods, our indoor activities are still focused on nature. For example, one of our recent indoor meetings revolved around nature in the media, and we discussed our favorite nature-related movies.
Aly's favorite movie was "Happy Feet": she loves penguins - "they are the most cute animals, and that movie allows us to peek and see what their habitat is like."
Nikhil pointed to a broader choice - "The national Geographic Channel". The various media types, from short stories to full-length documentaries are very insightful and "they make me feel like I'm in nature."
For Alex, his love of nature resonated with Woody Guthrie's song "This Land Is Your Land". He always liked that song because "it really makes it so I don't take for granted the world around us."
Here is the first fire our group built together!
Building a fire may sound easy, but you need the right combination of kindling, dry wood, larger pieces, and air flow to get things started and to keep it going.
Wow this is so cool!
ReplyDeleteI like nature too :)
ReplyDeleteLet's be bestiesss
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