Card N.9

9. Mountain trekking

MINIMUM 1 DAY
Young people 13-18
Mountain
Climbing/Trekking

Planning an outdoor experience for youths like a camp or a mountain day tour is an experience open to different learning meanings. Starting with a route with orientation map, planned in stages with different games. The design could be also a multi-sport experience. Through authentic experiences, from outdoor adventures to citizen-science investigations, the program could meet a lot of educational goals. Each expedition-style camps focus on developing a sense of stewardship and connection to the natural world, filled with fun and adventure. Give your group the right time to truly explore, adventure in, and enjoy the forests, caves, and streams. At the same time stimulate youths to work together to plan the final expedition. This final activity could be a funny playful game with a scope of environmental education.

Video: Why do I hike

Activities to develop

PERSONAL AND SOCIAL SKILLS

The final destination of your trip could be a learning activity related to the environment protection. The “ECOFLAG” game can be proposed in case of strengthening teamworking among participants and increasing environmental literacy as well as a sense of responsibility towards environment (recycling). The players are divided into 2 teams, each one of them is holding a piece of the flag in their pants/shorts and on each of these parts is written the name of a trash item.The 2 teams form 2 lines and when the game starts they have to run to take the flags from each other and put it in different bins. The game runs until one team is without flags Facilitators must limit the game area to a square. In each corner one trash bin is placed. After one of the teams wins, the facilitator checks the bins and explains to the participants if the trash was in the right bin. This activity aims to promote:

Teamworking
Team strategy
Effective communication

Activities to develop

PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIOURS

All outdoor activities in the mountain and the final Game “ECOFLAG” have a strong impact on youths, increasing awareness about the importance of proper waste management and practicing recycling in a playful manners. Make the activity more challenging by including on flags special waste difficult to recycle or whose recycling is not easily intuitive (e-cigarettes, bulky items, electronic equipment, medical waste). This will open up a debate on crucial topics such as: the current situation of global landfills; damages caused by not disposed waste or illegal disposed of waste.

Environmental literacy and awareness

Activities to develop

THE EMOTIONAL CONNECTION WITH NATURE

Thanks to the activity in the mountain, the complete immersion in nature, makes an authentic experience (i.e. feel the wind, see the night sky with stars and shooting stars), the discovery of nature implies a feeling of constant surprise that has a strong impact on individuals that is maintained over time. At the same time this activities can fill the gap among peers thanks to mutual help in more difficult stages of the activities. If you combine a phase of active role of individuals such as the correct ability to recycle and the debate on the dangers to the environment of wrong human behaviour, all planning will have an even greater impact.

Health and nature protection interconnection