Old Classes Made New Again

Our curriculum is constantly evolving as new people come to work at the Outdoor Education Center and bring new ideas with them. For many classes, this evolution is a gradual process--a new activity might be added one season, then someone thinks up a new way to explain something the next. Everyone once in a while, however, a class might undergo a significant overhaul.

Last winter we began the process of revising our curriculum. For most of our classes, this meant rewriting the existing description to match the way that we've been teaching the class recently. There were a few classes, though, that we don't teach very often here (since the classes that we teach depends on what classes our clients request), and many of these rarely-taught classes seemed like they needed some serious work.

One of the classes that got serious attention was our Revolutionary War simulation, formerly known as "Time Quest." (These days we're calling it "Rev War Sim," though the name is still under debate.) This class asks students to think about how the war might have affected some of the people involved, and for the students to come to their own conclusions about which side they might support in the war.

To begin the class, the students review what they already know about the Revolution. They then are asked what they would like to know. These questions are then recorded for the groups to take with them to the main portion of the activity: meeting and talking with various people involved in the war. These people represent a range of view points of view. In the photo below you can see some of the people that they meet. From left to right: A British soldier, a patriot woman, a Loyalist woman who is a camp follower for the British army, another British soldier (who has suffered an eye injury), and a revolutionary soldier. (During the activity, we don't all sit together...we were just enjoying the campfire while we waited for the students to arrive.) The students also have a chance to meet a member of the Mohawk tribe.

These characters all have diverse back-stories and beliefs about the revolution. One of our goals is to show the students the full range of experiences that people in the colonies had during the war.

We hope that seeing this range of perspectives will help the kids to make their own decisions about the war. At the end of the evening, we ask the kids to stand on a "value line," from die-hard patriots to completely loyal subjects of the king, with every shade of grey in between. The kids then get the chance to explain to their classmates why they chose to stand where they did. We have taught the "new" Time Quest a few times since it was unveiled last spring, and every time we have been very impressed with the careful thought the kids have given to forming their opinions.

Time Quest is not the only class that has been rejuvenated; Orienteering was also completely reworked last spring. Climate Change and Nature Crafts are on the docket to be worked on this fall...stay tuned for further updates on those two!