Greetings,

As many schools across the country - public and independent - tighten their belts, field trips and other off-campus learning opportunities are often among the first things to be cut back.

But at Swain, our off-campus experiences are a robust part of our curriculum, with well over 80 opportunities each year. The majority are classroom field trips funded by the Activity Fee each family pays, while others are optional trips that are paid for by the students' families.

One such optional trip was offered this weekend, when 12 intrepid 7th- and 8th graders traveled to upstate New York, where they stayed at Camp Chingachgook on Lake George. The students were accompanied by Brad Hirsh, middle school humanities teacher and Swain's Outdoor Ed Coordinator, and Julia Getty, Wellness Coordinator and 8th grade Dean.

The intent of the trip, according to Mr. Hirsh: 
 

"This trip is a mix of experiential learning, exploring, having fun, and having a positive experience in the outdoors... They will have the opportunity to go snow-shoeing, explore what a winter ecosystem looks like, go on quiet night hikes, and many other winter experiences. Experienced Camp Chingachgook naturalists and teachers will lead all of these experiences.

"During the entire trip, the students will be quietly learning in addition to having fun.  When they go for an afternoon hike in the snowy woods, they will be able to look around and appreciate the quiet grandeur of the outdoors during winter. The students will lose track of their technological devices and start to go to sleep with the sunset and rise with the sunrise as humans did for millennia. They will share stories around a fire at night or stare up at a clear sky full of stars thinking about the thousands of years it took for that light to reach their eyes."

And that is what they did! In the students' words, what they learned:

- How to ice fish.

- Eating snow in the cold lowers your body temperature!
- We learned what triboluminescence is (produced by friction - in this case, when the counselors chewed Wint-o-green lifesavers and created sparks)

What challenged them?

- Snow-shoeing uphill!

- Drilling holes for ice fishing with an auger (manual drill)

What was the most fun?

- Lying out on the lake, on our backs, to look at
the stars.

- Snow tubing! And seeing who could go the farthest.

- Downhill snow-shoeing - you could slide on the snow-shoes.

- Hanging out and playing games together.

It wasn't all outdoor fun - the campers had their responsibilities in the cabin, and also did a project in which they measured the waste left over from their meals.

This tied in to one of the YMCA's core values, responsibility ("we are accountable for our individual actions and are aware of the impact we have on each other and the environment").

Mr. Hirsh again: "Everyone had a wonderful time and learned a lot about sur-viving and having fun in the winter."

And they all learned they could go for more than 48 hours without looking at a screen!

(We will have additional photos posted on SmugMug tomorrow.)

__________

For the 6th- and 7th graders: Mr. Hirsh is organizing optional week-long summer experiences for these students (information was emailed to families on Thursday). He will offer an optional information session for interested families on Tuesday at 5 p.m. in the library.

Mr. Hirsh is also offering "Outdoor Exploration" during our Summer at Swain program in July. Get all the details here.