Originally appears in the Summer 2009 issue

Have you ever thought about visiting the home communities of the students who come to your outdoor center? I was lucky enough to be part of a group from my program that set off to discover the issues relevant in the home communities of our students and to view firsthand the impacts of our program on the students that visit us. In late November 2005, nine of us set off on bicycles from our mainland office in north Los Angeles. Destination: Phoenix, Arizona, via San Diego. We were a team representing the Catalina Environmental Leadership Program (CELP), a residential environmental education program located on Santa Catalina Island, California. Our trip lasted 14 days, during which we covered over 600 miles, consumed 420 meals, made presentations to over 720 kids at 8 schools, fixed 13 flat tires, and consumed and handed out over 1,100 energy bars and over 1,300 vitamin drink packets as sponsored alternatives to junk food snacks and sodas.

We organized this outreach program both for fun and to learn about the home communities of our students. In doing so, we hoped to draw a greater connection between words spoken at our program and the real lives and local actions taken by the students at home. We were aware of the shortcomings of a residential program that is far removed from our participants’ home communities. Our living environment on an island is drastically different from the home environments of most of our students; and in a program of three to five days, we never have enough time to teach all the things we wish to. In addition, we can’t observe, measure or reward the behavior of our participants when they return home. In short, we don’t know if what we are doing is relevant to their lives or is working!

Visiting the home communities of students can help outdoor educators to extend their relationship with schools, direct their messages and curriculum to the needs of participants, and better evaluate the success of programs. Walking in the school grounds of students, observing firsthand the environmental problems they experience (e.g., traffic, pollution) and the positive changes they have made (e.g., beautiful gardens, recycling programs) allows educators to tailor their teaching themes and information to the students’ real world. By visiting the schools, you will also be able to support teachers in their presentation of your program material and have opportunities to assist in implementing sustainable practices. You may even wish to offer eco-consultations, evaluating current school practices and providing solutions to any problems. In schools that are new to your program, you will be able to reinforce key principles and information. In veteran schools, a visit by your team is a way to recognize their patronage and commitment to your program.

When to do outreach?

Outreach to schools can be done either before or after students visit. Pre-trip visits enable you to provide an introduction to your site and staff, build enthusiasm and answer the typical questions (Are there wild animals? Do they bite? Where do we sleep?). Our conversations with students about bike riding, home gardening and other sustainable activities enabled us to plant “eco seeds” months before the island visit. More rigorous preparatory work could include starting to identify plants and animals, or activities that begin to build on the ecological knowledge of the group.

Visiting students at their schools after they have been to your site allows you to follow up on their progress from the teachings at your program. As our program is primarily focused on ecology and sustainable development, it was great to see how (or whether) the action strategies students proposed while they were at camp increased sustainability in their home community. We saw school gardens, composting systems, marine projects, and reports on our program and our “CELP principles” plastered all over classroom walls. Most importantly, we were able to see what messages were getting through to students and what was relevant to their communities. In going to a home community, you go beyond anecdotal evidence of your program’s success and see what works and what needs to be worked on.

Outreach curriculum

An outreach program is more than simply visiting schools: it is also an opportunity to deliver curriculum that prepares students for their upcoming program visit or reinforces what they learned on their last visit. Linking the work that students do at your site with work that is done at home is likely to have the largest impact and most success.

The curriculum you offer will vary depending upon your program. Having a central theme, or themes, for your tour will help you to focus on what information you will be seeking to deliver. We focused on sustainable living and ensuring that all our pieces had positive messages and suggestions for changes that children could make. For example, our tour took place just before Christmas, so we ran “conscious consumerism” workshops on alternative gift-giving ideas. We helped students plant seeds or seedlings for gifts to parents and family and also suggested making meals and baked goods as well as giving experiences such as museum or event tickets. The most popular gift items among the kids were certificates made from recycled materials that pledged volunteer hours with different organizations in the local community. We did Internet research beforehand to come up with a variety of local organizations that would take volunteers in the specific locale of the school, and we were able to incorporate these lists into teaching resources the following year when the school came to our site.

There are two curriculum-development options. You can offer set pieces and ask the schools to choose the topics or lessons they would like to receive. Alternatively, you can find out what topics the schools are interested in and then tailor experiences to meet those needs. The first path offers the advantage of clearly defined curriculum programming that you repeat over and over (and become really good at!). The second path, tailoring your programming to schools, allows you to be more responsive to individual needs and to keep the teaching exciting for your team. In either case, try to develop new activities that participants haven’t yet done before; and when developing new curriculum, envision how it could ultimately be brought back and implemented at your site, for raining day activities or to build greater depth into your current curriculum.

Although it may have been more work, we provided a combination of tailored curriculum and set pieces that we repeated. Schools could choose from such topic areas as gardening, composting and conscious consumerism, and from activities such as interactive assemblies and team-building exercises. Each school selected topics through a survey, and then depending on the time available and the number of students, we tailored curriculum for the schools. We also had a few curriculum pieces that we repeated over and over. One was a slide show of our bike trip, which by the end of the trip every staff member felt comfortable in leading. Another was gardening lessons. At one school, we worked in the garden and composting area that the students and staff had built since visiting our program. This was an inspiring opportunity for students to recap what they had learned from us and for us to reinforce the lessons. One school requested the gardening elective… but they didn’t have a garden! So, instead, with the help of some willing parents and some school funding, we designed a garden for them and then put the kids to work making raised beds, building a compost bin, moving earth and planting.

To start the initial contact with a school, it is helpful to prepare a survey letter to be sent to outdoor education chaperones or principals at the schools. The survey should include a blurb of a few paragraphs or a page to thoroughly explain your outreach program. No matter how well we thought we did this, we later found out that some faculty were still confused and so did not respond. Ask questions pertaining to how many kids you will be working with and what ages, what dates and times would be good for the schools, what topics/curriculum they are interested in and if they would be willing to make a donation to your programming (most schools have budgets for presentations).

Recruiting team members

No matter how long or short your outreach, how many kids you will be visiting and how you plan to get there, you need staff to run your outreach program. The number required will be very specific to your programming. It was important for us to be working with groups not much larger than those we teach on the island (10–14 students). As a result, we needed all 10 staff members to entertain the sometimes large crowds of between 60 to 280 students and faculty. Because of the expected fun and adventure of the trip, our staff were willing to volunteer their time during an off-season period. By visiting schools as staff volunteering our time, our outreach gave students an example of community service. This work-related enrichment was also a wonderful chance for the staff to strengthen friendship.

Why bikes?

By riding bikes to and from the home communities of our participants, we were able to smell, hear, taste and see first hand the environments in which they live everyday. Sure, one could drive around in a big bus and a few gear vans to visit schools, but biking allows you to exhibit a commitment to living sustainably while demonstrating the practicality of alternative transport.

We traveled 600 miles on our trip, but typically the schools served by outdoor centers may not be so widely dispersed as ours. If your program serves several schools in one or more urban areas, you could ride from your home base and then divide your team into smaller groups in order to reach several schools in one day. We did this in the Phoenix area, and it allowed us to visit several schools while still meeting our time budget. If you can’t afford either the time or the cost of a long bike trip, consider taking your bikes on public transport (trains, buses, subway) part of the way and then riding from the station to and from the schools. And if you do jump on a bus or a train for one sector of the trip, be sure to mention this to students, showing them how flexible and complementary these sustainable forms of transportation can be. Keep a log of the distances that your group cycles or travels on public transportation and use a carbon-counting tool on the Web to show students how easy it is to reduce transportation emissions.

Bike touring logistics

The energy needed to ride a long distance pales in comparison to the time it takes to organize the ride beforehand and during the tour. What you’ll need to plan will depend upon what the purpose and length of the trip and the distance between schools. The following are important considerations in planning, particularly if you plan a long tour.

  1. Route planning and safety: Contact bike associations in the areas you will be traveling who can provide cycling maps and give advice on the safest routes you can take. On our trip, the motto was “Safety never takes a day off,” and going a few extra miles to take a safer route was always worth it. Look for routes with wide shoulders, low traffic and minimal hills. Even on the safest routes, bike riding has risks, so it is important that all riders be adequately insured for the trip and covered by workers’ compensation.  Plan to cover shorter distances on the first few days and increase this as team members gain speed and skill at riding and changing tires. We aimed to ride an average of 50 miles a day, some days covering only 23 miles, and some days 70. Always allow ample time to arrive at your destination, and expect at least one flat tire. It’s a lot easier to relax and wait for the children than to be in a rush with just enough time to change clothes before presenting.
  2. Support vehicle: A support vehicle can be helpful, and possibly critical, depending on how much gear you are taking and how far you are going. You may feel that you are cheating by having a great big honking van follow you into the schools, but a support vehicle will help ease the nerves of novice riders and can provide assistance to injured or tired riders. Your tour will be quicker if you have a support vehicle for carrying most of the gear, food and bulky teaching supplies. A vehicle will also help to ensure that you arrive at schools on time, sweeping the riders up and carrying them the last distance, if they just keep getting a flat tires.
  3. Bikes and gear: The decision about whether to use road bikes or mountain bikes depends on where you are going. Most of our team picked road bikes for the long distance trip we had planned, and those on mountain bikes definitely worked considerably harder. Make sure all bikes are checked out and tuned up and that you have spare tubes, pumps and patch kits before you start to ride. We were able to get donations of patch kits, water bottles, spare tubes and bike lights (critical if considering any sort of twilight or night riding). The vast majority of our non-donated gear, such as clothing, helmets and raingear, came from thrift stores and “veloswaps”. A veloswap is an event where the riding community in the area come together and sell or swap outdated or used gear and parts at super cheap prices.
  4. Accommodation: A good night’s sleep can make the difference between a day of stress and a day of laughter. If you are camping, look for scenic and natural sites that will revitalize the group after a day of hard riding. The most economical accommodation is in homestays with teachers and students, which also allow you to have conversations and see life in ways you wouldn’t have considered before. If the schools can’t arrange homestays, ask if there is a common area to sleep in, such as a library, a church or a gymnasium.
  5. Funding: No matter what sort of outreach program you plan, the big question will come up: How are we going to pay for all this? If you’re organized, you can apply for grants; if not…. Schools are often willing to pay for assembly visits, and local organizations in the communities you visit may be able to make small donations in the form of food or free services, such as bike repair. If your program has charitable status, try to raise tax-deductible donations from business and individual supporters. Along the way, you can stretch the food budget by picking up bulk cases of produce from farmers markets and end-of-the-day bread from bakeries.

Whether you go by bike or take some other form of transportation, visiting schools will be empowering for both your staff and the school communities you visit. You will get to know the local issues in the home communities of the students who visit your site and be in a better position to tailor your programming in the future. You can also help to motivate school communities toward further action, building gardens, recycling or volunteering. For their part, school communities love to share in the passion and adventure of an outreach tour. Nothing is more memorable than arriving at a school to find banners waving and kids cheering, and then learning what actions they have taken in their home communities as a result of their time in your program.

[/content_protector]

To view the photo-rich magazine version, click here.

 

If you are not already a subscriber, please subscribe to read the full article

Courtney Howard is a former instructor, leadership coordinator and program coordinator for the Catalina Environmental Leadership Program (CELP) and Catalina Island Camps. He currently lives in Hobart, Australia, on the island of Tasmania. CELP is a a program run by Catalina Island Camps in collaboration with Jean Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society.