Feel the Ripples of Nature’s Influence: Keystone’s Outdoor Education Program
“Throw a stone into the stream and the ripples that propagate themselves are the beautiful type of all influence.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, 1836
As famous American transcendentalist writer and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson often argued in his renowned essays and poems, nature is the best place to find influence and inspiration. Leaving the hustle and bustle of everyday life behind for the great outdoors presents a fantastic opportunity for reflection on oneself and one’s relationship with the world. However, as technology progresses and modern life moves at an ever-faster pace, it can be difficult to find the opportunity to get back in touch with nature. This is especially true in education, where students are often confined to the interior of classrooms for much of the day. Through its unique Outdoor Education Program (OEP), Keystone ensures students have time to spend in nature, connecting their learning from class to the outdoors, and enhancing their experiential learning. All it could take is throwing a single stone into a stream to ignite new inspiration that ripples into students’ everyday life.
Part of the Experiential Learning Program (ELP), OEP trips have become one of the year’s most anticipated traditions at Keystone. OEP trips are an essential part of student learning that take education outside of the traditional classroom setting. OEP trips are focused on building students’ leadership skills and teamwork while fostering closer connections with their peers. These important skills are always a focus of our teaching staff, but OEP trips give a truly unique opportunity for students to work together in a challenging new way.
Although a journey into nature is certain to spark curiosity and inspiration in the hearts of students, it can also come with challenges. Keystone OEP trips start from Grade 4, where students go for a short three-day camping trip outside of the city. This year, students in Grade 4 took a trip to Yudu Mountain to enjoy the outdoors and collaborate on many teambuilding activities such as shelter building, making a fire, kayaking, hiking, cooking, completing a low ropes course, and cycling. For many students, this was their first time experiencing such activities. While paddling a kayak out onto the lake or conquering a low ropes course for the first time can be quite intimidating, the Grade 4 students were up to the challenge!
In addition to getting a boost of confidence and finding some fun new outdoor hobbies to pursue, the activities that the Grade 4 students participated in were also an excellent tie-in to their studies back in the classroom. Having just started a unit on “Building a Village,” the teamwork that students needed to display to successfully build their own shelter was a great hands-on example of the type of connections needed to create a positive community environment. Having returned from their trip, the students will now have a whole new conceptualization about the importance of working together to solve problems and overcome challenges. This new link to the classroom demonstrates how OEP trips serve as important extensions of learning, as opposed to being separate from students’ overall learning experience.
When the energetic Grade 4 students arrived back at the Keystone campus, they already seemed to have grown from their experiences on the OEP trip. Working together to unload gear and help each other back into the school building, the students eagerly shared stories of their favorite moments from the trip and shared their excitement for next year’s Grade 5 OEP. They didn’t have to wait long to find out more details about their next OEP, as the Grade 5 students also returned from Shuangxiu Lake in Yanqing District around the same time. The scenic lake offered even more fun for the Grade 5 students, who spent their days enjoying watersports like fishing, river crossing, kayaking, and much more.?Staying by the lake, the students gained a deeper appreciation for nature, and a few even skipped stones across the shimmering surface, watching the ripples expand like the inspiration in their minds.
While OEP serves as an exciting new moment for students in the Keystone Primary School, it morphs into a highly anticipated annual event for students in the Secondary School. This year, Grades 6, 7, and 8 all went on three-day trips to picturesque sites on the outskirts of Beijing, gleaning inspiration from the beautiful nature hidden just outside of the city. Grade 9 went a bit further, travelling to Qinhuangdao City in Hebei Province to visit the Seatopia Sailing Club, where they got to explore a whole new outdoor world of sailing. Grade 10 travelled to Tianjin, staying at the Spring Rock International Camp. These amazing experiences give students an even greater chance to get a unique look at the outdoors, and some students even return with a newfound passion, like sailing. While Grade 11 didn’t have an OEP trip, they went on a full five-day ELP trip to Inner Mongolia. Expanding on the natural and collaborative learning that happens on OEP trips, this ELP was a fully immersive experience in a new destination. Many students use anecdotes and memories from their ELP trips to inspire their essays and research projects upon return, gaining valuable new knowledge and a unforgettable stories with their classmates.
OEP and ELP trips provide a revolutionary approach to teaching students knowledge through new experiences and skills like leadership and teamwork. They also naturally encourage collaboration and help to build an even stronger Keystone community. While, for many students, OEPs and ELPs present a brand-new experience, the trips are still tightly connected to the learning that they are doing in the classroom. Perhaps more importantly, these trips create irreplaceable experiences in beautiful places, encouraging students to jump into the warm embrace of nature. While outdoors, inspiration can come from any place: high in a tree, under a rock, through a flowing stream, or even from the ripples propagating from a thrown stone. Who knows what amazing works this year’s Experiential Learning trips will inspire next?
