Alyice on May 10th, 2008

The Outdoor Campus

On Thursday I had the honor of accompanying my daughter’s 7th grade class on a field trip to the Outdoor Campus in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I must admit that at first I was a bit nervous about the experience as the entire 7th grade would be attending—all of which fit on a single yellow bus—and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to “connect” with this age group. I was also apprehensive about the field trip itself because I’d been to the Outdoor Campus a few years back (without a group) and found it rather boring. But all my fears were put to rest as I discovered that this was actually a fun and exciting age group and that the Outdoor Campus knew how to entertain, educate, and enlighten young minds.

The day began with a 40 minute bus ride filled with children laughing, talking, and playing games like “20 Questions”, “Hang Man”, “The Question Game”, and “Tic Tac Toe”. I was even asked to play a few games myself and found “The Question Game” to be rather interesting. The object of the game is to continually bounce questions off one another without actually answering the questions because the person that actually answers a question loses the game. It was funny to watch the kids’ facial expressions as they tried “not to answer” a question that they truly believed needed answering—like whether or not they liked a certain boy or girl in the class. And even more interesting to watch them take a simple question and turn it into a complicated question by throwing in a few curves or bells and whistles—all in an attempt to confuse the listener and get him/her to actually give some type of answer.

Upon arriving at our destination the kids quickly took their places in one of the rooms as they anxiously awaited their assignments. There were four groups of 15 with two adults per group. Each group would alternate between activities: fishing, orienteering, nature hike, outdoor cooking, and the infamous Sertoma Butterfly House and each activity would last for 50 minutes with a half hour lunch at 12:15.

Our first activity was orienteering which had a rather lame video presentation in which I actually said aloud, “That was weird” and got all the kids laughing. “Oops, my bad!”

If you don’t know what orienteering is, don’t feel bad. I didn’t know what it was either. In fact, I actually thought it had something to do with oars and the kids thought it had to do with “orientation” as in explaining how the day was to progress. Turns out we were all wrong.

Orienteering began in Scandinavia in the nineteenth century as military training but soon became a sport in 1919 when Ernst Killander, from Sweden, noticed a decline in track and field sporting events and wanted to spice things up.

Orienteering is about the thrill of adventure as you navigate through unfamiliar territory using a map of the course, a compass, and your own two legs. The idea is to find each checkpoint along the course and make it back to headquarters within a specific time frame. Think of it as a scavenger hunt without a huge list of objects or a simplified version of CBS’s “Amazing Race”.

After orienteering our group headed on over to the Sertoma Butterfly House where they were less than enthused. And honestly, I couldn’t blame them. Upon arriving at the Butterfly House we were met with a lady who gave us a list of dos and don’ts but forgot to educate and entertain the kids with the cool facts, like: where do they get the butterflies, what do they feed on, how can you tell a male butterfly from a female butterfly, do butterflies have enemies, why does the butterfly habitat have to be so hot, and how the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly takes place. While our visit was to last 50 minutes, the kids were ready to go after just 15 minutes, complaining about boredom and possible heatstroke.

The Butterfly House was followed up with an interesting nature hike where we learned about the local beaver, spotted a beaver lodge, and discovered how detrimental their damn building can be to cities but how beneficial it can be to natural environments. We also learned how to track, the importance of not sticking one’s hands down a burrow, and how to tell when a burrow is being occupied and when it isn’t.

After lunch we headed on over to the outdoor cooking area where we learned to make quick, homemade ice cream and Mexican Smores. While the kids had a blast making these goodies, I was disappointed to discover that they would only be told about the do’s and don’ts of fire safety and not actually see an actual fire being built.

After filling up on our afternoon goodies we headed over to the fishing area where the kids learned about fishing safety and how to cast a line. They were even given a few casting lessons before heading on over to the stocked lake for a half hour fishing excursion. With five volunteers ready to lend a helping hand the kids were ready to tackle the fish.

And that’s just what one young lady did! Turns out she got “Bob the Bass”—only the largest fish in the lake. As she screamed, “I caught one!” Half the kids ran to her aid as the other half cheered her on. And that’s when we learned a valuable lesson in the “catch and release” philosophy, the sooner you get the fish back in the water, the safer it is for the fish. Of course, I couldn’t get her to hold the fish for a photo, but I did manage to get a nice shot of the fish itself.

Until next time…

Disclosure: I was given free entrace to this attraction as part of my daughter’s class field trip. This is “my opinion”. I was not paid to give a positive review.

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I'm a freelance writer, mixed media artist, SMVA, and the owner of The Dabbling Mum.

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