COCHRANE— Several Cochrane High School students have recently enrolled in a brand-new program that aims to use natural experiences to reinforce the learning they partake in at school.
The ROAMS program, or Rivers, Oceans and Mountains School, is a one-semester long outdoor education academy where Grade 10 students develop equal parts outdoor based skills and classroom curriculum.
One of the underlying issues the course seeks to address is the increasing disconnect between people and the natural world, said the program’s primary architect and teacher, Jander Talen.
Talen said that he heard an idea while he was researching the structure of other outdoor education programs that came from the National Outdoor Leadership School. The basic premise, he said, is “if you take someone into the wilderness, they come back a better person.”
“I have experienced that in my own life through going on backpacking trips as a teen, to now, just getting outside and getting away from the business of life and work,” he said. “And not just day trips, but more so the overnight trips where you’re forced into some discomfort, of purposely choosing discomfort a little bit. You come back a better person, just through the experience of having faced some difficult things.”
The program was also influenced by the work of author and journalist Richard Louv.
Louv has written extensively on the importance of the connection between humans and nature and coined a term he calls “nature deficit disorder,” which he uses to describe a long list of maladies that befall those who separate from the natural world.
Louv describes how that separation can lead to things like trouble paying attention, higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses, myopia, diminished use of the senses and more.
“I notice it in myself, and I think many of us do, when we’re outside and we come back inside, or even while we’re outside we feel different, we feel better,” Talen said.
He explained the time outside not only contributes to the student’s wellbeing, but also to their productivity, which he said is noticeably higher after a session outdoors.
“They’re invested in it. The work that we’re doing is outdoor-focused and has a focus on what they’re excited about,” he said. “When we come back inside after being outside, we have amazingly productive sessions because the students are refreshed.”
Much of the work the students complete in the course overlaps with the two areas— Regular curriculum and outdoor education.
Talen explained the students will go on a trip and partake in activities that contribute to their outdoor education, and then write a trip report to submit to him that can be applied to a subject like English Language Arts.
Although the program has only been operating for a few weeks, Talen said, many of the youth have reported they are excited to come to school, leave feeling energized and that the program contributes to their wellbeing in a positive way.
The students in the program applied to be a part of the course, and come from a wide variety of academic backgrounds.
The qualifications for the course were that the applicant had a willingness to try something new, was interested in the outdoors and willing to be uncomfortable sometimes, Talen explained. Students do not need to have any background in outdoor education.
“We’ll take anybody, pretty much,” he said.
In the era of COVID-19, where rates of screen time are rising, and people are spending more time indoors than ever, a course like this is exactly what many of these students need.
“The research shows that 20 minutes outside in a natural environment lowers your cortisol, your stress hormone, and the students sense that … I’ve noticed a difference in my headache level,” he said with a chuckle. “They love it, I think, during this time of COVID especially when we’re cooped up in houses watching Netflix, just clicking the next episode button every time.”
