My Outdoor Ed.

By:Dini Khiangte

                                              Me with my Friends


On January 5-7 2011, I had experiental learning called Outdoor ED, which is only for 6th graders. It is an event to teach children about the outdoors. For example, it taught students how to enhance teamwork with other students and survival skills for our future.
The Tower                  Day 1:
On the first day of this experience we were riding on the bus for about 30 mins and we finally arrived to our destination at Lathrop E. Smith Environmental Education Center, Rockville. The first thing we did was to take a hike around the campsite. It took us about an hour or thirty minutes. Later on we started talking about the rules and regulations of the camp, which didn't take too long. My counselor soon told us our luggage had arrived and were allowed to go to our assigned cabins, after we had retrieved them.I was very happy to see my cabin mates, Megan, Paloma, Amiel, Jessica etc. because they were all my friends or people I know. We then unpacked and got ready for the activities. One of the activities was called a Confident Course which was mainly about working together and using teamwork to achieve the goal. The games in the Confident Course were really fun. One of the games was called Lava, where we all stepped on blocks of  1 by 1 ft wood and we had to get to the other side, but the rule was to have two feet on each block. At about 12 pm. we had lunch that we all packed, we didn't choose our seats because the main point was about meeting new people. Later we had time to be at our cabins and do what we wanted.For example I spent my time talking with my friends. At night we learned about the stars and astronomy, we visited a planetarium. We were told stories of the different stars and how it got named. For example, the Orion's belt was named because of the belt of Orion was a real congenial hunter. When it was done we had to go to our cabins and sleep for the next day.


Day 2:                                                                                    The Camp fire
On the second day, I woke up early in the morning at 7am. We ate breakfast after we were dressed, and we could "chill" a little in our cabins before out activities. One of the activities I did was a hunt. Where you had to find stopping points somewhere in the woods. We had to work together with our groups for everything because we were all by ourselves in the woods exploring and searching. We had to find 5 points within a certain time. My group found all 5 points and made it in time and we were placed in second place. Then we had lunch, after lunch we went to another hike around the perimeter of the campsite where we came across a tower we could climb. It was somewhere around 20 stories. The people back then used those to look for forest fires. Everyone got to climb it, but some didn't because it was really scary! Especially if you are afraid of heights. After the hike we had recreation time when you can do different activities like drawing, playing basketball, or playing soccer. I went to soccer but didn't do much. After recreation time we had dinner. The best part of the day was after dinner when we had the campfire. We made s'mores and sang campfire songs and the whole thing wasn't really long but it was fun. So when it reached 9:30 we had to go back to our cabins and get ready for bed.
Day 3:                                                                              Me at the bus for depurture
Day 3 was one of the saddest day because it was the day we had to leave and go back home. Everyone wanted to stay, including me. So we got dressed and went to breakfast. After breakfast we went to our last activity, which for me was, Predator or Prey. It was the best game in the whole time I stayed, but it was bad for us because we had less time to play. The game was about science. We were separated as herbivore, omnivore or carnivore. We ate all the other people because I was the carnivore. The game soon ended and we went to lunch. After lunch we went on the bus for departure. The bus ride home was fun because me and all my friends kepting singing random songs and we were having a good time. We arrived at my school Roberto Clemente Middle School sad but also with happy faces. I went home with my mom and sister welcomed me.
That was my Outdoor ED experience.