Gotta Prep for a Job!

Hey all, I've got a job at my university at our Outdoor Pursuit Center, I've got my WFR, and all thats left to do is go on a 10 day backpack! On this course we've each been given a few teaching topics 

My 20-30 Minute presentations are:

(These are meant to teach fellow instructors so they are prepared to be able to be prepared and answer any questions for students.)

-History of LNT

-Campsite Selection

My 8-12Minute presentations is:

(This is the quick teach a student version, where our goal is to act as if our group were going on a weekend outing only)

-Expedition Behavior for Participant

Preface: I did search this website, but results were not great, and its pretty hard to navigate through the site search function! I've always gotten great information from the members here in the past and it'd be great to be able to help share more information with those I will be working with from yall!

Now i feel comfortable giving a short speech on each of them.. but not 20-30 minutes on them.

History of LNT:

I can find the History of LNT, and give a booming "set scene" intro about imagine the world 50 years ago... imagine this very spot! can you see it? yeah, me too... fire rings everywhere, toiletpaper stuffed under every rock, a turd or two just on the trail over there.. talk about WWII and how it helped change us from bush-crafting to carrying supplies, and yada yada yada... So I do not NEED articles or info on this, but if you have them I'm all ears!

Campsite Selection:

Now this one, I'm worried about, I could easily do a short one, think about LNT rules... gotta be away from the kitchen... and yada yada! so would anybody have any good articles? I did do a search and found a video on here, but I would like to have some more than a 2 minute video to help me figure out what I'm going to say! I know you won't let me down trailspace!

Expedition Behavior:

This one I plan on basing off my NOLS briefing. We all sat around a white board and our instructor drew a bus, and told us, theres a lot of stuff we wanna bring on this trip and dont wanna bring! for example all our gear, thats a no brainer! but there are things that we gotta have in order to have a good trip, you know we want to bring that on the bus... and allowed us all to chime in and say what we needed to bring on that bus! and constantly on our trip, if someone was homesick or just too tired, we'd encourage him to get back on the bus!

From there, I will do what our school does before expeditions, and talk about things we can control and things we cannot, and we all have to realize that we cannot let whats out of control take us off the bus, because if you fall off the bus you could get hurt!

So I feel comfortable with this, and if anyone has some other cool ways to teach this, I'd love to hear!!

If you read all this, thank you! I'm really just a person that needs assurance before I take on a task like such. I know all the information yall share with me will be valuable and it will all be read and watched in its entirety as you did this thread! haha!

yall have a good one!

MikeyBob

edit: this is what i found for campsite selection and will be reading it all tonight! http://www.trailspace.com/forums/backcountry/topics/118093.html\

In my experience, one great way of teaching outdoors stuff is to use case studies.

Pick something from your own experience that shows something about what you want them to learn (especially if you made an incorrect decision or a bad choice), make a bunch of copies, then have the class review it. Get them to point out where the mistakes were made, and come up with ideas on how to do it better.

Have you though about picking a few photos of different locations and asking the students to review them, picking out what's good about them and what's bad? Then tell them what happened to you when you discovered the gentle stream turned into a raging torrent overnight.

Did you read my trip report on the Backpacking Prep I did in May? There's a good example of backpacking teamwork there, and maybe a few things you can use on the problem-solving processes. Use it as a case study by adding in extra information to deal with the obvious points ('The person who was injured had done a lot of prep, including day hikes with lighter packs') and let them come up with possible solutions to the problem.

You could also use the material from my Crypt Lake report. I've used that one as a case study of my own, to analyze how we get misled by other people's descriptions, and the effects of peer pressure.

Hope it helps.

great stuff! yeah i know LNT has some case studies you can buy, and thought about getting them... probably better off just making them myself!!

i'll be sure to read up on your posts you told me to look at!

peter1955 said:

 I've used that one as a case study of my own, to analyze how we get misled by other people's descriptions, and the effects of peer pressure.

Peter,

Good point about getting misled.

Some of the most confusing situations I’ve found myself in were at least partly due to someone giving me bad information on the trail. On one trip two years ago some folks had camped right on a trail head (near a confluence of trails). My map was indicating a certain number of trails and I was seeing one less. This was a wilderness area with no signs. There were three folks camping at the spot and they all three assured me that there was no trail behind their camp. The problem was that a wrong choice meant 20 miles (32 kilometers) in the wrong direction for my route. I eventually found the right trail by bushwhacking between points on the map. I later returned to find out that they were completely wrong!  So after that I just say “excuse me” and bull through camps if I think I need to check it out.

MikeyBob365 said:

great stuff! yeah i know LNT has some case studies you can buy, and thought about getting them... probably better off just making them myself!!

i'll be sure to read up on your posts you told me to look at!

The Outdoor Council of Canada course uses case studies almost exclusively. They have the advantage of making the decisions personal for the student - 'What would YOU do?' - and putting them on the spot to analyze their choices instead of it being just a classroom lesson.

On the Crypt Lake TR, look especially at the people who almost backed out from the cliff crossing, and the factors that might have made them do something dangerous in spite of their doubts. And consider that the guide books call this 'one of the best hikes in Canada' but ignore its risks.

I like to think that when I take a group somewhere, I'm taking them somewhere they've never been before and showing them things they've never seen. I also want them to experience things they've never tried before, and push themselves into accomplishing things they never thought they could do. The Crypt Lake hike is a good one for all of those.

Peter I shall put this attitude into my presenations, and the days i have to lead the group!

 

I tell people that there are three important elements to a backpacking trip besides just the hike itself: preparation, pacing and teamwork. I usually joke that the last mainly involves getting your partner to carry as much as possible without them realizing it!

Defiantly going in my Expedition Behavior!!

Please sign in to reply