From the 23rd t the 27th of April our international Outdoor education class organised a range of Outdoor activities for several different groups from Tangen college. We were based in Paulen gard in the area of Vennesla. The week involved 8 different 20 to 30-minute rotations per group of students supervised by members of our class in pairs of threes. The activities where slack line, river crossing, orienteering, barefoot walk, night line, fire lighting, rope swing and a shelter building activity. This week gave us a great opportunity put into practice group dynamics theory and refine leadership skills in relation to group dynamics and cohesion.
Our schedule ran the same throughout the duration of the four days. The students would arrive sometime between 4 and 5 pm after taking around an hour to set up camp and organise them selves for the night. Once they where ready we would meet them Sam and Frankie where in charge of the administrative/ organisational side of activities and rotations would welcome the students brief them before sending them off to their first activity. The groups where given a score out of 10 for each of the activities, the scoring method was determined by the people in charge of the activity. At the end of each day the scores for each rotation the scores where added together and the winner was announced by Jed in his Kiwi outfit. We would run three rotations each night then would run the remaining 5 the following morning until around midday leaving us with a lot of down time each day.
Aaron and I ran the slack line activity which consisted of four different group and individual challenges of varying difficulty with one bonus challenge where the students could show us a talent of there choosing either individually or as a group. The first game involved working in pairs to counter balance one another using a rope attached to a carabiner on a fixed line above the slack line, the pairs would drag the rope from one end of the line to the other. The second challenge was to have the entire team standing on the line at once for 20 seconds without touching the ground, we also had them move from end to end of the slack line by climbing around and leap frogging each other. Finally, an individual challenge on the shorter line for participants to walk from one end to the other.
Throughout the week it was interesting to see the different stages of Tuckman’s (1965) model of group development that each group was in. This was due to a number of factors within the groups which became more obvious to spot throughout the week. Groups who performed better where usually more motivated to complete the task and would have an efficient method of communication between group members usually with more distinct roles within the group where one member would take on more of a leadership role. Groups who performed poorly where usually the opposite less enthused about the task and lacking in communication more in what Tuckman (1965) labels as the storming phase of group development.
This proved to be an excellent opportunity in regard to Veileding skills and experience. For myself personally it was a new and somewhat uncomfortable situation to begin with to be in front of a group with attention directed at us. However, it became more comfortable as the week went on and we where able to alter slightly our methods to meet the needs of each different group and make the task more engaging for them. In the future if running activities in this style I think I would take notes throughout each day and reflect upon areas of strength and areas for improvement in future practice. Some obvious area for my self to improve upon is organisation not only of activity but being prepared for any situations. One of the days Aaron and I got caught out when one of the students injured themselves on the slack line. Fortunately, there where teachers from the school nearby. If this had not been the case I think we would have been able to manage the situation but this is definitely an area to consider to take more care in details when in planning and preparation in future circumstances.
This was also our first opportunity to camp without winter conditions meaning we got to test out new sleeping methods. Majority of the class my self-included went for the option of sleeping in a Hammock with a tarp to shelter us from the rain. Marijn and I where able to set up out hammocks as bunks one on top of the other as we only had one tarp which provided adequate shelter. This worked well and the hammocks where comfortable to sleep in however in the future if sleeping in a hammock I would have made my hammock tighter between the trees.

On the whole the Tangen project was a nice change from the rest of our trips. It enabled us an opportunity to put into practice the theory we had learn around Veleding, group dynamics and different pedological approaches and how they work with different groups.