Tag Archives: Outdoor Education

Bosque School Medical Reserve Corps

Ever felt sick or were injured at school? Ever have to face the grumpy school nurse? Well, not at Bosque School in Albuquerque New Mexico! This is an amazing student led program, where all of the first responders for illness or injury are the students themselves. As members of the school’s Medical Reserve Corps, the students learn how to respond to medical incidents and emergencies and take the lead when something happens.

In this episode, we talk with Dan Shaw, teacher, first responder and faculty head of the MRC at Bosque School, as well as Maddison, Taylor & Abigail, three of the students who are part of the MRC program and first responders.

What better way to learn a unique and practical medical skill set than through real-world experiences.We take a look at how this unique program came about and how it’s been developed over the years to provide students with some amazing and challenging opportunities and experiences to develop an excellent skill-set and ability to respond and deal with a range of medical issues and emergencies.

This is true leadership in Experiential Education and one of the most impressive programs I’ve come across in a school. Whilst many schools profess they provide opportunities for leadership, this school actually does it in such a fantastic and meaningful way.

For more information on Bosque School’s program:

Bosque School MRC

https://www.bosqueschool.org/list-detail?pk=149439&fromId=245550

USA National MRC

https://www.phe.gov/about/oem/prep/Pages/mrc.aspx

Standard Diner ABQ

https://www.standarddiner.com/

This was the first diner I’ve been to in the US and it was nice. The frozen margarita with mint mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!

Aspen High ExEd Program

Have you ever wanted to start the school year by getting away somewhere, fun, challenging remote or culturally unique? No this is no holiday, this is the Aspen High School ExEd program, which provides students the opportunity to learn through experience right across the country.

In mixed year level groups, students get to choose from a huge range of options, from Hiking in the Tetons, to Biking in New Mexico, or perhaps a dive into the Cajun culture of Louisiana or some glitz and glamour of Fashion Design in LA!

There’s something for everyone in this fantastic practical and experiential education program, which has been running for over 50 years!

In this episode we talk with Brent Maiolo who is Chair of the ExEd program at Aspen High.

For more information on Aspen’s program:

Aspen High School ExEd

https://www.aspenk12.net/domain/131

Episode Corrections

Mt Kosciuszko is 2228 metres high, not 2227! Also, you multiply metres to get feet, not divide. Both entirely my mistakes as I can’t do good math! Or English it would seem.

Howling Gibbon Outdoor Education

Have you ever tried washing an Elephant at school? Explored a jungle and encountered a family of Gibbons? Well you can at The Howling Gibbon Outdoor Centre in Thailand

In this episode, we talk with Alex Moxon Founder and program Director of the Howling Gibbon Centre.

What better way to learn than to spend time in a rural centre in Thailand which combines, outdoor adventures with field studies and service learning. This centre runs a great range of interesting and diverse programs, with the service learning based upon the UN sustainability goals.

Alex is also the founder of Outdoortopia, an exciting experiential education blog and online community for teachers and other educators interested in creating change makers for a sustainable future.

For more information on the Howling Gibbon and Outdoortopia

Howling Gibbon

https://www.howlinggibbon.com/

Outdoortopia

https://www.outdoortopia.org/

UN Sustainable Development Goals

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300

Risk Management – Challenges & Opportunities

Where do you start with Risk Management? With any experiential education, you have a professional responsibility to pro-actively manage risk. This is an ever-evolving and dynamic skill-set that you develop over the years through training and experience. It’s something we can never take for granted. We take a look at some of the challenges we face in managing risk and what can happen, when things don’t go to plan.

In this episode, we talk with Paul Tame, who is a leading risk management trainer with Xcursion Risk Management Training, Lead corporate management trainer for Zen Training & Senior lecturer at Western State Uni Colorado. We take a dive into risk management for experiential education and touch on a few challenges we all face when planning and running programs.

Often things look great on paper. However, how does that translate into the real world? With risk management for any sort of activity, it needs to be a living and breathing culture within your organisation and not just a bit of paperwork someone completed and then filed away.

For more information on Paul’s work and the organisations he’s worked with over the years, check out:

Zen For Business

https://www.zenforbusiness.net/

Xcursion Risk Management

https://training.xcursion.com.au/

Western State Uni

https://www.western.edu/

And Crested Butte a fun ski resort we’ve skied together at:

https://www.skicb.com/

For more information on Denali:

https://www.nps.gov/dena/index.htm

https://www.weather.gov/afg/denaliclimbing

Season 2 Kickoff!

I know it’s been a year longer than we had hoped, but now, despite the current global issues, which reminds me of the Billy Joel song, ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’, we’re back for season 2 of the Xperiential Education podcast!

This season, we cover all sorts of great programs from art, to science, to risk management, to outdoor ed, to a really wonderful student-led medical program and a few things in between. The depth and breadth of the podcast and our guests, highlights how important it is for students today to learn to be adaptable problem solvers.

Season 2 is brought to you by Xcursion Risk Management, for all of your risk management training and software needs for running great experiential education programs.

https://training.xcursion.com.au/

https://www.xcursion.com.au

For more info, guest suggestions and other feedback visit:

https://xperiential.education/

For cool blog articles about experiential education, outdoor education and risk management visit:

http://www.challengeexperiencegrowth.com/

For professional and business info visit:

http://www.davidgregory.com.au

Tihoi Venture School

What’s a great way to get boys to mature and take responsibility for themselves and the direction of their lives? Send them away to live in remote rustic timber mill cottages with seven other boys, where they have to cook for themselves, keep their cottages in good order, study and take on all manner of outdoor challenges, including skinning and cooking their own rabbits!

In this episode, we talk with Cyn Smith, Director of Tihoi Venture School in NZ. Situated near Taupo on the North Island of New Zealand, Tihoi Venture School was started in 1979, using buildings which were previously the workers’ cottages for the timber mill.

This is very much a ‘back to basics’ program which provides amazing opportunities for the students to grow within themselves, gain independence and build a set of skills to prepare them for the uncertainties of life.

 

For more information on Tihoi and their wonderful program:

https://www.stpauls.school.nz/section/tihoi-venture-school

http://www.knowtihoi.school.nz