New Zealand primary school students who don’t watch mobile phones, play games and rely heavily on electronic devices start outdoor practice in the first grade.
"Children, what should we do if there is an earthquake during today’s outdoor class?" The children threw down their schoolbags one after another and made protective actions such as squatting on the ground, hugging their heads and curling up. They are in step with each other, and no one asks questions or talks.
"Very well, if there is a fire or earthquake, the bridge at the entrance of the park will be temporarily closed for safety reasons. Please pay attention to another escape route." In Autari-Wilton Park, a suburb of Wellington, New Zealand, the staff is leading a group of 10-year-old children to have outdoor practice classes.
3 kg to 5 kg on foot for 3 hours.
Geological disasters occur frequently in New Zealand, so it is a compulsory course to learn the basic skills of survival in the wild and save yourself in the first time in sudden disasters. On the same day, 126 students of Grade 5 and Grade 6 from Johnsonville Primary School in Wellington came to Autari-Wilton Park for outdoor practice class, carrying equipment supplies for one day.
In the course of the day, every seven or eight children were divided into a group and started hiking in the wild under the leadership of a teacher. During the hiking, everyone should carry all their belongings, including food, water, clothes and school supplies. The teacher asked the children not to leave any garbage, and the peels and food packaging produced by lunch should be packed and taken away. The walking time is about 3 hours, and the load is about 3 kg to 5 kg.
Besides walking and playing, there is also a task list.
Mary Hickey is a retired professor of education at Victoria University. Before that, her major was to train primary and secondary school teachers, and now she participates in outdoor practice activities in primary and secondary schools as a special consultant. "Today’s children have many problems that we never encountered in those days. Watching mobile phones, playing games, relying heavily on electronic devices and lacking interpersonal communication and survival ability, all our outdoor practice activities are aimed at solving these problems. "
The outdoor practice class is not just as simple as walking and playing. The teacher has prepared a thick stack of learning materials for everyone: the text introduction and map of the park, the planned route of the day, and the pictures of plants that need to be learned and identified. The children also have a task list, in which 20 places and tasks are marked on the map. They need to find plants such as silver fern, pine tree and concha, observe cicada slough, observe the stream where eels live, draw the most impressive scene, and so on. The children must complete them one by one.
"Let them go into nature with their tasks, which is a bit like a game, and the learning effect will naturally be much better." Bianca Clark, the team leader, said.
Outdoor practice began in the first grade of primary school.
According to another teacher, Joanne Wilson, in New Zealand, outdoor practical education began in the first grade of primary school. As children grow older, the difficulty, intensity and professionalism are constantly improving. There are three main teaching objectives of this course: recognizing the map and the road, recognizing the basic plants and cultivating the outdoor spirit.
"For example, children must first learn to judge whether the route they are taking is correct from maps and road signs on hiking routes. There are many forks in the park, but the map signs are clear. They may get lost and discuss, but in the end they need to form an agreement. "
"For another example, regarding the study and identification of plants, we ask children to carefully understand the shape, edge and structure of leaves. Everyone compares the leaves seen from the scene with the abstract pictures in the textbook, forming a deep impression and memory. " Wilson explained.
After three hours of walking in the wild, many places were exposed to the sun, but every child was busy completing the task without realizing it: did he walk on the right road, found something in the roadside bushes, whether this strange lichen was poisonous or not, and whether he had completed another task … … Along the way, they either buried themselves in climbing the mountain, or commented on the cicada slough on the trunk, or found a strange-looking plant and immediately drew it on the ground, all of them were busy with sweat.
Clark said: "This kind of training intensity can only be regarded as a warm-up for a 10-year-old child. Senior primary school students have to attend outdoor camping courses for several days, when they have to carry their sleeping bags and live in the wild for a week. During this period, children can’t carry electronic devices, and parents can’t accompany or visit them. " (Reporter Guo Lei Lu Huaiqian)