What is outdoor education at Sweetdale?

Outdoor Education refers to experiential education done in the outdoors. Outdoor Education typically comprises of residential, journeybased learning in which students participate in adventure-based activities, such as climbing, river rafting, teambuilding, low ropes, high ropes, and group games. Outdoor Education usually has an environmental education component on it. For example, night walk or hiking may have an ecology lesson tied in with it, or river rafting may include discussion on water life and habitats.

What is the purpose of Outdoor Education?

Outdoor Education at Sweetdale serves several purposes, on several different levels. Students will learn basic skills associated with the activities, such as climbing, raft building, but the
greater purpose is to teach students how to work together, to rely on each other, and to communicate effectively - these are the real life skills.  Specifically, the focus of our Outdoor Education is to develop strength within the individual, between individuals, and between the individual/ group and the environment. Our programs are especially designed to help students develop:

A significant by-product of our Outdoor Education when administered to school groups is the development of new relationships between student and teacher. It is common that teachers
will observe their students in the different, outdoor setting, and come to learn more about that student's thought processes, behaviours and abilities. For example, a teacher with an
established, preconceived notion of a student who doesn't perform so well in the classroom may see the student excel in the new outdoor setting, and thus form a new, more positive
outlook and relationship with that student upon returning to the classroom. In other words, teachers can learn a lot about their students' positive values by observing them in a
new setting, away from the classroom!

What sets Swetdale Outdoor Center apart from its competitors?

Tailorable Programs - The key difference between Sweetdale and other outdoor centers is that we tailor our programs for every group that attends. While our package still include the major focal points - Teambuilding & Group Dynamics; Nature & the Environment; Recreation & Adventure - any of our activities can be added to any of our packages. For example, a few schools that attend our full programs prefer the Teambuilding & Group Dynamics focus, but like to add plant ecology (nature) and river raft building(adventure) to the activities for their students.

What is particularly special about Sweetdale Camp Trainers?

Sweetdale trainers are experienced in working with children, teens, young adults and adults. In any given season, each of our instructors will work with hundreds of individuals from a variety of backgrounds. In any week, a trainer may work with a 5th grade group, a 12th grade group, a college group and a group of adults from a church setting. This diversity in audiences helps them become more openminded to different facilitation techniques and requires them to be well-versed in typical outcomes in all the activities we offer - teambuilding, ground initiatives, low ropes ativities and other large group activities.

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