Outdoor Education Curriculum Call Toll free 800 953-EDGE
EE Web Log
I had the privilege of taking a group of young women from the district secondary school to the Edge this summer. Our goals were to do some outdoor volunteer projects, give service to our community and bond as a group of women.
Warm greetings by
Edge staff welcomed
us to the facility (that word is incongruent
with what the Edge
has to offer), rather we were welcomed to
their home, their
unique world that they
so openly and generously share. Our girls set to work by cutting wood, and cleaning up brush
around the Tee-Pee. Handling bow saws and clippers was new to us and the physical energy expelled by our group was fuelled by the natural energy we soaked in from our surroundings.
The new experiences we participated in, including a remarkable visit with Tibetan Monks who were visiting, capped off a very powerful day for all of us. ~ Connie Hergott, Director, Connections
Outdoor Education Curriculum
A visit to Northern Edge Algonquin presents Canadian and international students and teachers with a wide variety of curricular and co-curricular opportunities for experiential learning. We carefully review experience content for each group, creating unique experiences that directly link to your groups experiential education needs. The unique outdoor education setting at the Edge is perfect for combining theory with hands-on experiences in science, environmental geography, tourism, art, leadership and peer support, at-risk groups, outdoor and physical education.
Each of these themes, along with program elements described below are seamlessly connected on overnight trips and eco-campus stays at the Edge to provide an experience tailored to meet your needs.
2006 Itineraries (organized by theme)
Call today! toll free: 800 953-3343 to discuss your outdoor education needs.
Outdoor Education: The Golden Compass:
community development, communication, team building
Ice Breaking Initiatives/Games: Get your Outdoor Education program started by Breaking the ice with unique games and activities that encourage participants to mix and get to know one another. Custom-designed for your group needs, these activities can take place indoors or out.
Herbetisme - Natural Team Building Initiatives: Nature provides all the challenge required and more for our exclusive outdoor education team building initiatives. Our facilitators create challenging, fun activities that require little more than rocks, trees and the natural landscape.
Kawawaymog Mystery: a nighttime orienteering adventure
Do you have the courage to go into the dark forest at night, and meet a variety of challenges to retrieve the bounty and return safely to the warm firelight of the campfire? Will you do what needs to be done to ensure the safety of your team on this unique outdoor education adventure.
A Quest for Vision: Throughout time, people have gone into nature in times of crisis (when an answer to a problem was needed), as a rite of passage into adulthood, or simply out of a desire for self-discovery. Outdoor Education Students prepare questions and go into nature for an extended time to seek nature’s truths.
The Golden Compass: Outdoor Education Students work together to master the Fall of Faith, defeat the Giant Tundra Spider, take part in a Night Magic Adventure and much more. Customize this experience to help participants rediscover themselves and empower one another.
Outdoor Education in Algonquin Park: Spirit of Algonquin: discovering nature, recreational adventure
Night Magic: Few natural vistas can match the inspirational panorama of the Milky Way arching overhead in our dark sky. Learn the constellations and their stories for night time outdoor education. Working individually or with others we can reconnect the stars to tell our own constellation stories. If we're lucky the Northern Lights (aurora borealis) may even put on a show.
Algonquin Wolf Howl: Learn about the world of the Algonquin Park Wolf including recent research findings on Algonquin’s most renowned resident mammal. Later outdoor education students gather at the campfire for the Wolf Denning Game and conclude your evening with a group wolf howl.
Birds and Things that Fly: Join one of Ontario’s renowned naturalist/birders on a nature excursion to meet the wide area of birds at home in the Algonquin Highlands.
The Edge of Night: Our incredible naturalist experience takes place at sundown! Frogs, amphibians, bard owls, bats, loons and nocturnal creatures take center stage. . . and who knows what other mysteries await in the dark forest.
Morning Tea with Moose (May – Aug): Enjoy a silent morning paddle sipping Algonquin teas in narrow rivers and lily-filled bays spying for majestic moose - paddling outdoor education.
Natural Outdoor Education, The Secret Life of Plants: Learn the secrets of the Algonquin Highlands forest, harvesting medicinal plants and wild edibles for a cup of tea and a natural snack on a guided nature hike on the Forgotten Trails.
Making Tracks - Snowshoeing (Jan–Mar): On Winter outdoor education visits, enjoy the quiet of winter on a walk in the forest seeking out the tracks of wildlife or choose to snowshoe on the lake and leave tracks of a different sort.
Paddle Dance: Introduction to Canoeing (May-Oct): Our introduction to paddling canoes or kayaks is filled with entertaining games and challenges that help your group get to know one another while learning to navigate among the islands.
Torch Lit Ice Skating (Jan-Feb): Enjoy a memorable nighttime skate under the stars.
Norwegian Kick sledding (Jan-Mar): Kick sleds look like a dogsleds, but are powered by the swing and kick of your leg taking you on a self-propelled winter adventure.
Canoe or Kayak Overnight Excursion (May-Oct): Plan an overnight outdoor education canoe trip in Algonquin Park. Trips offer opportunities for personal growth and enrichment, development of leadership skills and discovering hands-on ecology of Algonquin Park.
Quintze Camping(Jan-Mar): Let us guide you on a backcountry winter excursion, where we’ll spend the night in an overnight shelter you'll help create out of snow! Enjoy unbelievable food and the sights and sounds of winter close up.
Outdoor Education that inspires "The Eco-Edge":
ecological thought and action
Eco-tour Scavenger Hunt: Working with partners students explore the Edge, discovering some of the unique features of our solar powered centre. Discover the challenge of implementing ecologically appropriate practices in our daily lives by focusing on principle-based decision-making that created this unique outdoor education centre.
Ecological Decision-making: An examination of sustainability as it relates to economics, environment and human health and decision making form the core of this experience. The game "Earn as Many Sustainability Points as you Can" can provide participants with an opportunity to experience teamwork, cooperation and challenging decision making for indoor outdoor education.
Thinking Like a Tree: Students heighten their natural intelligence and develop competence, confidence and trust participating in outdoor education nature awareness activities and cooperative games that awaken sensory awareness.
Internalizing Outdoor Education with Medicine for the Earth: Students learn how to use their imagination to transmute negative beliefs, attitudes, and the energy that comes from our emotions. This experience is extended to transform environmental pollution and heal the earth.
Council of All Beings: Solo time in nature and creative projects give students the authority and courage to speak their truth representing elements of nature at an inspiring council session. This highly recommended outdoor education experience is based on the experience designed by John Seed found in Thinking Like a Mountain, by John Seed and Joanna Macy.
Quest for the Golden Nectar (Mar-Apr): Join us in our Sugar Shack to tap trees, boil sap and bottle your own home made maple syrup in a decorative bottle. A perfect addition to a late-winter retreat.
Eco-Project: Students can participate in a wide variety of hands-on ecological projects. In the past students have designed trails, rehabilitated trails, posted signage, planted and tended gardens, and more. Outdoor education Projects vary according to local needs.
Inspiring the Artist Within: self-awareness, creativity
The Tom Thomson Experience - creativity and outdoor education: Storytelling, Nature Excursions and art experiences in the land of Canadian Painter Tom Thomson. Stand where Thomson stood and represent your vision in watercolors, pastel, and oil stick.
Wahoo! Power of the Drum, harmonious outdoor education: A community of tribal wisdom is created, inspired by the improvised and traditional sounds we craft using a variety of drums, rattles musical instruments and our voices.
A Labyrinth Story: Learn about the history of the labyrinth and work with others to design and construct a large outdoor labyrinth. Take a heroine’s journey, and learn to use the labyrinth for creativity, to experience stillness and silence, to seek wisdom.
Romancing the Stone (May-Oct): Gigantic inukshuks in the Canadian Northland, Stonehenge in the British Isles and piles of stone the world over stand testimony to the enduring connection between stone and the human spirit. Outdoor education resulting in creation of amazingly improbable balancing stone sculptures.
Spirit of the Drum: Exploring the Power of Symbols, Ceremony and Words
Students learn how to use their imagination to look within and learn how to accomplish their goals with less effort and more joy. Gaining practical experience using three simple tools motivates and challenges students to be true to their passions.
Faces of Success: Creative, artistic outdoor experiences using natural elements helps us explore our unique personalities, talents, and goals. Students work in partners to create plaster masks and later paint them with designs, symbols representing their special talents, abilities and challenges.