Third Entry: Blue Mountains

I learned so much during our final field trip to the Blue Mountains that it cannot possibly be captured in 800 words. However, this entry will attempt to examine discoveries I made about the outdoors, myself, and others using three key photographs that I took on the trip.

Photograph One: Key Learning Moment About the Outdoors 

The fire that we created and maintained in our cabin

During the Blue Mountains field trip, I learned that environmental factors, such as the weather, can play a huge role in shaping experiences. The weather this weekend shaped my experience because it determined what I packed, how I dressed, and how I spend my time. This weekend was an extremely cold one, especially during the nights and mornings, and we had to create a fire in our cabin to keep (relatively) warm. While I have spent time in areas without electric heating before, I have never had to rely on myself and a few others to gather firewood and create and maintain a fire to avoid waking up freezing in the middle of the night. Although I admit I am excited to be back in Sydney writing this blog entry from my heated room, I am happy that I had and learned a lot from this experience. It made me think a lot about how life was before the advent of electricity and consider many perspectives that I have not thought about deeply before.

Photograph Two: Key Learning Moment About Myself

This photograph, which captures me maintaining a positive attitude when faced with the task of overcoming physical and mental challenges, represents an important discovery I made about myself during our final field trip to the Blue Mountains. During this trip, I learned that my attitude has a direct effect on my experiences. More specifically, I learned that the more positive my attitude is, the more enjoyable my experiences will be and the more I will get out of them. I was extremely nervous for this field trip because I worried that I was not in great physical shape and was informed by the previous group that the hikes were extremely strenuous and demanding. I was worried that I would be the slowest member of my cabin and hold up the rest of the group, or even worse, that I would not be able to complete the hikes at all. However, I quickly realized that I was not even thinking about these concerns on the hikes because I was so focused on having conversations with my new friends and taking in the beautiful views. In fact, during these hikes I began to feel more connected to nature, which could support the arguments of Outdoor Education instructors who posit that outdoor learning stimulates positive feelings toward nature (Wilhelmsson, 2012). Because I maintained a positive attitude during the hikes, I did not just get through them, but I actually enjoyed them. The realization that my attitude has a direct impact on my experiences, a discovery I made about myself during the Blue Mountains field trip, is extremely important because it can be applied to many other aspects of my life and future situations. This new knowledge has inspired me to get the most out of all my future endeavors by approaching them with and maintaining a positive attitude.

Photograph Three: Key Learning Moment About Others 

Every member of our cabin slept in the living room together
to be closer to the fire

My experience on the Blue Mountains field trip led me to realize the huge role group dynamics can play in shaping experiences. During the hikes, I realized how much the overall attitude of the group shaped my own attitude, which in turn, had a huge and direct impact on my personal experience. I think that I could maintain a positive attitude during this trip because my group remained extremely positive throughout the weekend. I speculate that if my group was more negative and focused on the intense physical demands of the hikes rather than on how excited we were to be enjoying this experience with each other, the field trip would have been a much different and more negative experience. This field trip also led me to realize how easily people engaging in outdoor learning can bond over challenging experiences, food, and lack of technology. According to Birgitta Wilhelmsson, who has studied outdoor education, one of the many reasons teachers have for outdoor learning is to promote collaboration (2012). My learning experience supports this idea because I did not know many of my group members before this trip, but now regard them as friends. Our friendships began when we were tasked to shop for food, cook meals, and eat dinner together. I think food was especially effective in facilitating bonding due to its universal nature. Members of our group were from three different countries (the United States, Germany, and Holland), but we all love pasta and tacos. Enduring the challenging hikes together also allowed us to bond because cheering each other on and knowing that we were all going through the same thing made us feel more connected. Finally, the lack of service in the cabins allowed our group to get very close. During downtime, instead of spending time by ourselves on our phones we all sat at the table together and talked about ourselves and our lives. I learned a lot about other members of my group during this time that I do not think I would have learned if there was the usual wedge between us created by our cellphones. I also feel that this time away from our phones made us all more perceptive to each other’s emotions. This discovery is consistent with the findings of a recent study conducted by researchers at an outdoor education camp. These researchers found that individuals who spent five days at this camp without access to screen-based media (including cellphones) and increased social interaction experienced significantly improved recognition of nonverbal emotional cues (Uhls, Michikyan, Garcia, Small, Zgourou & Greenfield 2014). I am very excited that my cabin got so close and strongly believe that bonding over food, physical challenges, and lack of technology facilitated the creation of these interpersonal relationships.  

Some Final Thoughts... 

According to the definition we have been working with in class, Outdoor Education encompasses learning about the self, others, and the environment. Through this class and the field trips associated with it, I have learned so much about each of these three phenomena and strongly believe in the benefits of outdoor education. According to a piece by Peter Martin published in the Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, some of these benefits include “the distinctiveness of outdoor education in promoting a connection to nature, a capacity for critical thinking about human nature relationships leading to ecological literacy and the importance of teaching young Australians how to assess and manage personal risks” (2010). I am so grateful for the opportunity to take this class and feel that I gained a much deeper understanding of the unique ecosystems in Australia while simultaneously learning about myself and others who I met along the way. Thank you for an amazing six weeks! :) 

This video was recorded after our final hike in the Blue Mountains

Sources:

Martin, P. (2010). Outdoor education and the national curriculum in Australia. Journal of Outdoor 

and Environmental Education, 14(2), 3.

Uhls, Y. T., Michikyan, M., Morris, J., Garcia, D., Small, G. W., Zgourou, E., & Greenfield, P. M. (2014). Five days at outdoor education camp without screens improves preteen skills with nonverbal emotion cues. Computers in Human Behavior, 39, 387-392.

Wilhelmsson, B. (2012). Teachers' intention for outdoor education: conceptualizing learning in different domains (Doctoral dissertation, Umeå universitet).