As it was early in the semester and the course were still in the forming stage of group development, the instructor had planned an overnight camping trip into Jegersberg. It is believed that the aims of this were 3 fold, these are:
- Introduce cold weather/winter camping to those that have no experience of it.
- To enable the course to get to know one another better.
- To enable the instructor to see how each member of the course works as part of a team.
In order to enable the group bonding, each country had to deliver 2 group tasks or games that aid in the facilitation of group development. This would ensure that aims 2 and 3 were met. The majority of the group tasks provided some form of shared experience and were considered fun, it is believed that only several of the tasks were aimed at group development.
An additional team/group bonding exercise that was given to the course was a cooking competition. This involved various minimal ingredients and we had to deliver a meal that was to be judged by the rest of the course.
The primary aim of introducing the students to cold weather/winter camping was easily achieved. However, just because it was January doesn’t mean there will be snow on the ground. Although it did lightly snow through the night and in the morning there was a fine covering over our tents and the ground.
After breakfast all of our equipment was packed away and we set off back to the university for a debrief of the activities.
Some of the learning outcomes for this overnight cold weather camping and group bonding trip are as follows:
- No matter how cold it gets, always allow for ventilation in the tent, otherwise a build up of condensation in the tent could make equipment and clothing damp and ineffective.
- When going to sleep keep the gas and water inside the sleeping bag so that it doesn’t freeze.
It is believed that although this was early in the course all of the aims were met and everyone had a good time partaking in the group activities.