Have you wondered what Leading E.D.G.E. is all about? We're about creating student-centered, problem-based, (in this case project-based) experiential, collaborative classrooms. The Buck Institute has a great series of videos on project-based learning. Check them out HERE.
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Item 11 – The Nikon D-70 with 35-70 & 70-200mm lenses SCORE 15 MSRP: >$1200 http://www.nikonusa.com/en/Nikon-Products/Product-Archive/Digital-SLR-Cameras/25214/D70.html The Nikon D-70 camera with the two lenses is a wonderful DSLR camera and with one extra battery will take wonderful photos of the highest quality for a month long trip. However the camera, lenses, mini-tripod, extra battery and all important waterproof Pelican box weighs in at nearly ten pounds! There are so many high quality point and shoot cameras, some of which are even waterproof, that it is hard to justify bringing this behemoth. I think it’s time to down size. What do you use? How do you like it? FINAL EVALUATION: Great but too heavy and bulky To see item 12 click HERE To see the evaluation criteria click HERE Item 12 – The Original Camp towel by Cascade Design SCORE: 7 MSRP: $7.95 http://cascadedesigns.com/packtowl Years ago someone gave me this towel and while I was never impressed I frequently threw it in my pack because it was light and compact. It absorbs water okay but doesn't appear to dry very quickly. I rarely used it because I learned many years ago that if you get wet from jumping in the lake you eventually dry off even without a towel. My wife will tell you. While I use a towel when I get out of the shower I rarely use one when I get out of the lake. Its barely adequate performance and its light weight and low bulk kept it from getting a perfectly awful score of 5. It is last on my list. It is time to retire this item even if though, “it don’t weigh nothin and don’t take up no space.” FINAL EVALUATION: Worthless To see number 11 click HERE To see the evaluation criteria click HERE I recently completed a two-week trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota. I have now gone on over fifty trips of ten days or more, including twenty-one trips of over a month. I learn something new on each one. On this most recent trip I brought the standard items, some of which have served me well for decades, others which I brought for the first time. Over the next two weeks I thought I would share with you an even dozen of these items which ranged in importance to me from worthless to essential. I’ll throw in one additional item that I think I’ll bring on the next trip to make it a baker’s dozen. I will share my thoughts on how I evaluated them and my candid opinion on why I liked them or not. I’ll do this on a daily basis over the next two weeks. Stay tuned and please feel free to let me know whether you agree or think I’m full of it. Stay tuned. Later tonight I will post the first item ranked 12th out of twelve. The Evaluation Criteria I used five criteria for evaluation each of the twelve items on a 1 to 5 scale (5 being best.) Theoretically items could range in score from 5 to 25. Although we didn't have any items get the lowest possible score we did get one perfect score. 1. How often did I use it during the trip? 2. How well did it perform? 3. How heavy, bulky, and durable was it? 4. How important was it for our health and/or safety? 5. How much did it contribute to making our trip easier or more enjoyable? Here's a table showing the scores and ratings for each item. Click Here See the Bonus Item HERE See Item 1 HERE - Map & Compass See Item 2 HERE - SteriPEN Classic Water Purifier See Item 3 HERE - Hand Sanitizer See Item 4 HERE - Nokero Dome Light See Item 5 HERE - Bungee Dealy Bob See Item 6 HERE - Leatherman See Item 7 HERE - Garmin 62s GPS See Item 8 HERE - KODAK PLAYSPORT Video Camera / Zx3 See Item 9 HERE - Kindle Reader See Item 10 HERE - The Goal Zero Guide 10 Plus Adventure Kit Solar Panel See Item 11 HERE - The Nikon D-70 with 35-70 & 70-200mm lense See Item 12 HERE - The Original Camp Towel We recently returned from working with Sycamore Academy in Lake Elsinore, CA. It is a fascinating school but I'll save that story for another time. This entry is about an article I came across this evening. It is titled: Hard Skill, Soft Skill: Which One Matters Most? It explains how, in this day and age, soft skills such as collaboration, integrity, and the ability to accept criticism are more important than the technical skills you may have learned in college. The information is great and I totally believe it. Why then am I so frustrated? Because our educational system doesn't believe it and the No Child Left Untested environment certainly doesn't believe it. Leading E.D.G.E. has been a proponent of teaching these "soft skills" ever since we started teaching wilderness leadership skills forty years ago. For a brief period during the mid nineties when the SCANS report was released and funding was made available to support it there was a substantial effort to try to teachers how to teach and assess these types of skills. Since then it has been all about the test I got my Spot in the late spring of 2010 in preparation for a trip on the Thelon River in northern Canada. It worked flawlessly and many of our friends followed our progress via the track progress feature. Since that time I have only used it occasionally and again it worked fine. My guiding partner Doug Fitzgerald started hiking the Northville - Lake Placid Trail yesterday and was hoping to take it with him so that people could monitor his progress. About a month ago I got it out, renewed my "track progress" account and gave it a test run. Low and behold I couldn't get it to find a satellite signal. I put in fresh batteries, took it out onto the lake where I was confident there was no interference with the signal and still nothing. I emailed customer support and they said, "We would advise to change the batteries, leave the SPOT outside ON for about 20 minutes and then try to send the message." It was pretty much what I did but I tried again. They said if it still didn't work to try calling them. So I called them and another similar suggestion was provided saying if it didn't work to call back. So I called back and a young lady basically said the only thing to do was to buy a new one. I said, "That all, there are no repair options?" She offered a rebate that was available to all buyers but that was it. To say I was disappointed and frustrated is an understatement. To have an item that cost that much fail after only two years does not seem right. I wrote a quick note to tech support stating my frustration and that seems to be the end of it. The Spot is like the girl with the curl right in the middle of her forehead. When she is good she is very very good but when she is bad she is horrid. According to an article by Leon Neyfakh in the Boston Globe questions have surprising power to improve our lives. In this fascinating article he explains that learning to ask the right question is as important, if not more important, than answering questions correctly. Check it out. We are pleased to announce that a chapter written by Bruce and me addressing the question, "Are rational decision making models the most effective method to train novice outdoor leaders?" has been published in the text, Controversial Issues in Adventure Programming available from Human Kinetics. We take the position of "yes" on the issue while colleague Shayne Galloway takes the "no" position. It is edited by good friends and colleagues Bruce Martin and Mark Wagstaff. Take a look and let us know what you think. For the last few years I have had a ritual of hiking up Ampersand Mt. for my birthday. It’s a nearby peak a little over 3300 feet high. It is the first mountain I ever climbed having first hiked it in 1958 with my Uncle Rad, sister Esther and her best childhood friend Paula Howe. It has a gentle one and half mile approach and then a notoriously steep one mile 1700 ft ascent to the summit. I've probably hiked it over twenty times and it is a classic Adirondack hike with great panoramic views from the summit. The view from the summit of Ampersand Mt The question I pose to you is, for a hike like this, or any other for that matter, how do you determine when you should take a rest break? Over the years I have used a number of different means to help try and answer that question. When I first started hiking I took a break when I got tired. In 1970 I learned from Paul Petzoldt that taking a break when you are tired doesn't make sense. You're much better off taking a break BEFORE you get tired. When I got more experience hiking I used time as an indicator of when I might take a break. Early on I would generally hike an hour and rest ten minutes. I quickly learned that when leading groups and carrying heavy packs that was too long a time span to go without a break. I found that hiking twenty minutes with short breaks seemed to work better. I found it was extremely helpful to have pre-determined break times. It allowed people who were not as strong, in as good physical condition, or mentally tough to have something to look forward to. They learned that if they can just make it the next twenty minutes or maybe even the next five minutes that they would get a break. It seemed to work pretty well. Another view from the summit of Ampersand Mt Another view from the summit of Ampersand Mt.Two things have had a big impact on the evolution of my thinking regarding breaks; technology and having kids. Technology brought altimeters to the masses. Today most outdoor leaders have a GPS. With this technology we can more accurately use distance or elevation as an indicator of when we may want to take a break. I learned, with my two boys by my side, that elevation is a great indicator of when to take a break. I remember the epiphany like it was yesterday. It was Easter weekend and the weather provided a nice early spring day. It was around 1990, my two boys aged 10 and 7 and I camped on the shore of Taylor Pond in the Adirondack Park and decided to hike up Catamount Mt. We drove the short distance to the trailhead and headed up the mountain. There is a short approach and then you start up a steep two mile hike with 1500 feet of elevation gain. As kids typically do, my boys were asking, "How much farther?" and "When is our next break?" My typical response when my college students asked that kind of question was to give them one of two standard responses, "Five more minutes." or "Just around the next bend." Having recently received my first Casio altimeter watch I got the idea to try something different. I put the watch on my oldest son Eli and said, "When we gain 100 meters in elevation we'll take a break.” That ended all the questions and we ended up have a great early spring hike up one of my favorite mountains. Flash forward to this April when, for my birthday, I hiked up Ampersand Mountain with my great nephew and niece aged 10 and 9. Now I have a GPS with a built in altimeter. How did we determine when to take breaks? I told them we'll take a break when we travel 1.5 miles or gain 400 feet in elevation whichever comes first. We didn't take a break on the approach until we hiked 1 and a half miles. Then we started taking much more frequent breaks as we gained elevation quickly. It worked great... We'll at least the rest breaks worked great. Late season ice prevented us from summiting but that's a story for another time. BOTTOME LINE: Take breaks BEFORE you get tired. You want to have a reserve of energy in case you run into an emergency situation. Use time, distance, and elevation gain to help determine when to take a break. |
Jack Drury's Leading E.D.G.E. Blog
Sharing Observations on Education, Wilderness, and About the AuthorThis blog was created and is maintained by Jack Drury with contributions from Bruce Bonney. Jack and Bruce have been working together since 1984 providing professional development in four areas: Categories
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March 2015
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