Question+5-+WKCF


 * 5. Evaluation Criterion:** **There is a clear link between the proposed project activities and NB curricular outcomes and/or commitments found within When kids come first.

Explain, within 300-400 words for tier 1 or 600-700 words for tiers 2 and 3, how your project meets this criterion. (check this for duplication of concepts)**

The Adventure Center had been a concept developing over more than 4 years as guided by experience with youth, the OP curriculum and other individual adventure activities. We believe that the links to the curriculum documents and “When Kids Come First” are strong. They have been mentioned throughout this application as these two documents are a major portion of the impetus for our efforts. The Outdoor Pursuits curriculum has three major underlying initiatives. They are to provide some technical skills to enjoy the outdoors, to encourage the use of outdoors as a healthy and active lifestyle (Pg 1 Curriculum Document) and perhaps most importantly, to provide opportunities for character development, communication and teamwork skills (Pg 1-3 Curriculum Document). There are some major differences that adventure brings that traditional physical education does not. Adventure takes students out of their normal sequence and thought patterns and presents them with a challenge with a perceived risk. For the most part, these activities are novel to each student and thus helping to level the playing field. Our personal experience shows that traditional cliques and social status has a tendency to dissolve during these types of activities. Research shows that adventure done correctly, including a thorough debrief, encourages self confidence, teamwork, and both intrapersonal and interpersonal skills. Programs where it was strickly skills based “failed to significantly raise participants’ levels of measured positive psychological constructs”. (//Journal of Experiential Education//, Volume 29, No2. Pg 203, 2006).

The Outdoor Pursuits Curriculum guide expects students to be able to experience a number of outdoor activities. During the late fall and winter months, these are often limited to skiing or snowshoeing which have not been very successful over the past few years, a trend that is expected to continue. The curriculum guide also expects that some high perceived risk activities be placed for the students to experience failure and then success. In the Moncton area, this is difficult as our natural landscape does not provide many safe areas within reach of the schools. An indoor facilities that would be open to all high schools in the district would address all of those needs as indicated by the curriculum document.

“When Kids Come First” (WKCF) vision is a perfect fit for this project. The Honorable Minister has conducted his own studies to show that students perform better globally with respect to their lives, including academics, when they can find a passion on which to build (High School Council, James M Hill High School, Miramichi, May 2007). While many students find sports or arts like basketball or theatre, there is a whole group of students who do not conform to these well established and valuable programs. One only has to look at the popularity of skateboarding parks and the X-Games to see that adventure tends to attract a traditionally low serviced clientele who need to find a positive passion. This project will provide such an opportunity to students over the district. It will allow for a number of students to further their leadership and use their passion for employment as there is a student employment opportunity built into this project. Providing a passion that leads to responsibility and employment speaks directly to many of the issues of our students who require intervention, hopefully before they are referred to the guidance office.

The Corner Stones of Change (pg 8) as presented in the “WKCF” dictate that
 * -“ every child has strengths which can lead to success, and he or she deserves the right supports and opportunities to nurture those strengths”. Many students could excel at the physical, or the social aspects of an adventure setting.
 * -“Every community has a role to play in creating a culture of learning and mentoring for children.”- The town is involved in creating the area. We are involved in producing student workers who are available for Parks and Rec, our workers will have a volunteer requirement.
 * -“every child deserves a safe supportive learning environment, and his or her opinions and experiences must be heard if we are to create this environment.” Much of the programming involves both individual and team building work. These circles require thinking outside the box, expressing opinions and discussing their own experiences and feelings. The preprogram and debrief deserve equal investment of time and thought as the physical adventure challenge. This will help to create a positive learning environment where opinions and feelings are valued.
 * -“Children learn best when they are inspired to learn; mastering skills by following their own intellectual curiosity to tackle new challenges and solve new problems.” The challenges require some specific detailed skills to be mastered which are then used to solve novel problems, both artificial and real.

WKCF (pg9) makes some commitments.
 * To help Children develop a passion for learning: We would like to provide another passion for them to develop. This is not just another phys ed activity. Because of the perceived risk and the problem solving aspects, students are required to discover aspects of themselves. Reading and writing will be used to chronicle their development is an essential component.
 * It Engages Community partners in Improving Schools- This is the 1st of a three phase program, where each phase is a stand alone project. Each section will require community involvement, but will also be a benefit to the community. For this particular phase, the Town, NB Power and the Federal Prison are involved.
 * It helps promote a healthy and safe schools by encouraging healthy lifestyles and providing an avenue for intervention for those students who use the facility through the outdoor pursuits class or through community programs.
 * At this stage, we are not prepared to start a “Day time Brat Camp”. We are expecting to pull the normal cross section of students who normally apply for the outdoor pursuits classes. This itself has in the past had a larger number of students who are struggling to not be labled as “at-risk” but who are in danger of falling into that realm as compared to many of the other classes such as grade 12 English, Physics, Advanced Math etc…

EDIT ME HERE


 * CRyan - Almost all of what has been said in the following section has already been mentioned elswhere in the text.There are a few minor examples that do not repeat but for the most part also do not correlate as strongly to the essence of the question. Could this section be re-incarnated as part of the "conclusion" or "highlights" section??**

The WKCF document provides a number of objectives whuch have been paraphrased below with a clear link to our project. o Foster learning community where opinions are valued. The problem solving and debrief allows for student to voice their opinions when facilitated by a trained individual. o Students find passion. Provide a unique experience for out students that is designed to meet some of their intrinsic needs for risk, adventure and adrenaline. o Use passion to help others (Citizenship)- The teams aid the individuals who are participating and then students who wish to be employed must provide a number of hours of volunteer time. o Create a link to the economy- The eco-tourism and adventure tourism sectors of our economy are growing as indicated by the number of companies that are less than a decade old and the relatively new NBCC Adventure tourism program. Our project will foster links to these companies and to the NBCC program. Students will consider non-traditional employment opportunities. We will be able to increase the ability of the candidate pool for those companies who are looking for skilled student employment. o Create a link to Post Secondary studies The research component of the project will involve two universities. We expect that their graduate students will be contacting us, providing insight, collecting data and providing feedback. Many of our senior students who are interested in psychology and sociology will be able to see how research is conducted. This insight may make the less than exciting classes bearable because they have had a glimpse of real world field experience. o Create employment - Students who find their passion in adventure, complete additional training and volunteer a specified number of hours will be offered employment opportunities at the adventure center. In addition, we will actively pursue the local tour operators to recruit students employment from our district who have completed this higher level of training. A reference from our adventure center would have some expectation of a higher level of responsibility and ability. We will negotiate for a $0.50/hr increase in their normal wages because of their volunteer work and training. o Character development- The activities stretch your emotional, physical and psychological beings. They will be asked to complete difficult tasks. It will challenge their sense of self only to be built into something stronger. They will be presented with activities and dilemmas that will give them a chance to exercise compassion, team work, honesty, encouragement, commitment to excellence, and perseverance. For instance, one student will “forget” their lunch. We will see who jump up and share their own lunch with those who are missing. o Research and staff development for Adventure Programming relating to the intervention of students- We will continually attend and when appropriate present at conferences and professional learning opportunities. Our budget includes items to jump much of the learning curve efficiently. Once our own research projects begin, we will be in a position to present. At the forefront will be to discover either by learning from others or by discovering on our own, how we can best impact our students using adventure programming. This will require a highly skilled staff. The project fills a number of voids left in the OP curriculum because of our weather, topography and scheduling. It also addresses many of the specific commitments and underlying themes of the WKCF document.