Course: Grade 11 Healthy and Active Living Education
Date: Fall 2020 – In-Person Learning
Teacher: John Lise
In the Grade 11 Healthy Active Living Education course, students developed a geocaching activity for elementary school students as a safe, COVID-friendly outdoor activity.
This project came to life during the geocaching unit of the course as students tried solving some geocaching treasure hunts as a class. After about a week into the unit some students asked the question, “Why couldn’t we make one of these treasure hunts ourselves?”
Upon discovering that a local elementary school could not go on any field trips this year due to COVID-19 restrictions, the grade 11 class decided to create a geocache for grade 8 students to solve. Both classes had access to a nearby park and because of the nature of the treasure hunt, all students could avoid close contact. The grade 11 students also had their bikes and used part of the biking and hiking unit time to extend the geocaching unit.
This year, many changes had to be made to our course to focus on COVID-friendly outdoor activities. As young adults who are learning about physical education as a discipline within a Christian world and life view, the Grade 11 class wanted to connect with younger students to encourage them to continue to be fit, active, and to enjoy the beautiful outdoors even in a time of crisis. Participating in the geocache was not only a physically and mentally challenging puzzle to solve, but it also built community and encouraged students to enjoy God’s beautiful creation as well as each other’s company (from a distance).
John Lise, Teacher
The students did a run-through of the geocache course two days beforehand and then used the day before for fine-tuning. They also gave and received feedback from the grade 8 students as well. The grade 11 students reflected on the event and shared some of their feedback both about what they enjoyed and what they could improve on:
“Our group geocaching went fairly quickly and I think the day went very well. The only issue was the length of the space where we hid the clues. It took a long time for the kids to get to one spot even when just running.” – Kyara
“The day was nice! Everyone seemed very excited about the activity.” – Jedi
“I think we should’ve figured out a better way to rotate the groups through the geocaches so that the timing is better.” (Anna)
“The geocaching went well, and the group I took finished it very fast leaving me very satisfied.” (Seth)
“I think the grade 8’s enjoyed the day and had fun which is always the most important.” (Evan)
Listen below to Laura’s perspective on the project and the overall course!