My Field Trip to Royal National Park

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I had to write a report for class so I figured I'd post it instead of writing a whole other entry for here. I hope you enjoy and learn something!

Report on the Royal National Park Hike

Part A:

• Ecological Features:

The world’s second oldest national park was established in 1879 and is the Royal National Park in NSW (NSW Government: Department of Environment and Climate Change, 2008). Royal National park is on a slopping sandstone plateau that “started forming between 190 and 225 million years ago” (NSW Gov’t, 2008). In some places the sandstone has been carved away by water in the Hacking River System heading to the ocean (NSW Gov’t, 2008). There are distinct different features in the Royal National Park that make up the many different types of terrain within it. It varies from the coast to temperate forest and river valleys. While we were on the hike we got to see the coastal terrain and some of the inland terrain of a river valley as we walked to see the waterfall. When we were walking along the coast the vegetation was small bushes and very low to the ground. As we headed inland the bushes grew taller and as we headed towards the waterfall we even began to see some trees. Most of the uncovered rocks that we saw were cliffs near the ocean. These rocks varied in color from deep purples, to reds to oranges and even white or beige in color. It was easy to see how the ocean affected the rock by wearing away at it through waves, winds, and spray to create the cliffs and overhangs that we saw. Unfortunately I did not see any of the park’s 43 native mammal species on the hike (NSW Gov’t, 2008). I attribute this to walking near the end of the pack because I think most of the wildlife would be scared off by the noise and size of our group. Before our hike however when we stopped in Audley I saw and heard several of the 241 different species of birds that have been sighted in the park (NSW Gov’t, 2008). I heard Cockatoos, saw ducks, and even walked up to a Kookaburra sitting on a branch not more than 3 meters from me before I noticed it. Unfortunately it flew away so I do not a have picture to prove it but Rachel can vouch that we saw it so closely.

• Human Activity:

As in any National Park that is widely visited you can see the impact of human activity throughout the widely used areas of the park. The parks department has tried to contain the areas of impact by posting signs telling people where the paths are and signs along the way to help keep them on the path. There are also bulletins about the park at major stopping areas that help educate visitors on the local flora and fauna and what is needed to keep the park in good condition for the flora and fauna. The parks department has also tried to prevent the harmful effects of erosion in some areas of hiking trails where the surface being traversed is loose and not as durable as other areas. For example, on our hike we came across a meter wide metal grid stretching about 40 meters on top of one of the cliffs near the ocean. The area of cliff that the grid covered were loose rocks that would easily be kicked away if there were many visitors walking on them everyday. Another issue of erosion is brought up when the trails are muddy after the rain. “Walking on the track edges and cutting corners on steep, zigzagging tracks increases erosion and visual scarring” (NSW Gov’t, 2008). In another area of the park near the Wattamolla beach there was a series of bridges and elevated paths to provide an easily accessible route down from the cliffs to the level of the beach. These paths seemed to get a lot of use from patrons who came to the park just to visit the beach. The elevated paths and bridges served dual purposes of preventing further erosion from the cliffs to the lower levels of the water and made it more accessible to visitors of varying ability levels. I also noticed a fair amount of trash throughout the park that was left by visitors. The park is a lovely place for a picnic and many of the areas we visited were natural areas where there were no trash receptacles. The areas that were more geared towards visitors parking their cars near an attraction had facilities and trash receptacles but they were not very everywhere. Trash left in the park is distracting to the natural beauty and unhealthy for the environment.

• Personal Responses:

I really enjoyed the experience of visiting the park and seeing the blend of all the different environments in one area. I did feel like I may not have enjoyed this break into nature as much as some people because I only just came back from a ten day trip in the Northern Territory where I was immersed in natural surroundings. I think that for others this was a much-needed refreshing outdoor experience that they had not had in a long time. I did however appreciate my time outside and enjoyed my natural surroundings. I was enamored by the sandstone and the many different colors of it that I saw. I enjoyed our personal reflection time where we got the chance to listen to Australia. I would have enjoyed it a little more if there had been fewer people around walking by and if I had picked a spot that was not in as much wind that cooled me off a little more than I would have liked. I enjoyed the winding nature of the paths that we walked along because it made it easier to forget how many people were around you enjoying the park on their own. I would have liked to see more animals but I understand that fewer people and less noise would have created a better situation in which to come across some. I appreciate that I did not come across any dangerous animals and came out of the experience unscathed.

Social pressures that I felt being part of a large group dampened one aspect of my experience at the park. I felt uncomfortable to stop and explore plants and areas that caught my attention because I did not want to slow down the progress of the group. I was afraid that other people would be frustrated with my choices of areas in the environment to explore further. I feel that if we were in smaller groups I would have felt more comfortable to have input into where and how the group stopped to explore.

According to an analysis by Keith McRae some of the top ranked broad objectives of outdoor education are: Develop the basic skills required to participate in selected outdoor experiences, enhance personal qualities and abilities, and enhance relations with others (as cited by Neill 1997, p2). I feel that I developed skills necessary to participate in our activities at the park by paying attention to my surroundings, those around me, and instructions given by our leaders. I followed the marked paths and tried to tread in the center of the path to prevent future erosion. I also feel like I enhanced personal qualities when I talked to the other people in the group. This is personal growth for me because I feel that I am typically shy and nervous about conversing with others. I enjoyed getting to know some of the other people in the group and overcoming my fear of talking to them. I also think that I enhanced relations with others in the group because as we talked to each other we became more comfortable with each other. I felt like I was more included in the group of Australian fourth year students that all know each other because we all had a good time together. I think that I definitely reaped the benefits that McRae listed as broad objectives of outdoor education.

• Comparisons with home country:

Most of my hiking in my home country of America has been in Texas and Maine. These climates and geological features are very different from what I experienced in the Royal National Park. I’m used to hiking in landlocked areas so the coastal features were quite a different experience. One of my favorite parks to visit in Texas is Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. Like the Royal National Park the geological features of Enchanted Rock State Natural Area is very enticing. In the park is a pink granite dome that spreads over 640 acres and extends 450 feet out of the ground (Texas Parks and Wildlife Department n.d.). The biggest general difference that I noticed between the Royal National Park and the American places that I have been was the trees. The trees were different of course because they were different types, but also they were different in overall and general features. Almost all of the trees in RNP were small and twisted in their trunk and branches. The main species of trees in RNP were eucalypt and red gum trees (NSW Gov’t, 2008). In America the trees are typically larger and shaped differently. The main species of trees in Enchanted Rock State Natural Area are Oak trees (TPWD, n.d.). The Royal National Park was also set up a little differently than the parks that I have been to in America. I am not used to there being food stands or coffee shops in a park. Typically parks that I have been to in America have a park store with hats and shirts and guidebooks and some parks have general stores with basic staples and firewood for camping. I am not used to however there being a food stand serving that I would expect at a school sporting event. I saw a lot of similar uses of the park to parks that I have been to in America. For example, I felt that it was ‘normal’ to see families out enjoying the park together on a Sunday afternoon. I felt that Royal National Park was exciting to see a new and different place, but not so different from the places I have visited in America that I was shocked by what I saw there.

Part B:

Learning in an outdoor setting has many benefits for primary school students in the areas of environmental education and social learning. One method of teaching primary students in an outdoor setting, such as the park, is through experiential education. “Experiential education refers to learning by doing or experience” (Ford 1986, p7). This mode of learning aligns itself well with John Dewey’s theories about learning (Ziniewicz, 1999). Dewey’s philosophy indicates that you learn through the thinking of your mind and the actions of your body working together to process the information that you are inputting. Similarly, the constructivist learning theory views learning as understanding arising “from the learner’s engagement in the world through perception, motor action, and bodily senses.” (Light 2008 p.23) When students are in the park and using all their senses they are truly learning and understanding what they are learning.

Environmental education

Environmental education is learning about the entire environment including all of the factors that affect it (Ford 1986, p7). Teaching primary school students environmental education at the Royal National Park could relate to how the area features are formed to what type of vegetation grows in which areas to visitors impact on the environment. Learning about the environment in the out of doors can help the students because they can physically see and explore what they are talking about to help them process the answers. “Intelligence results from habitual give and take of working things out in our own mind and with our human and natural environment” (Ziniewicz 1999, 12 para).

For example, while we were in the beach area at the end of our hike I observed a family with a little girl who could not have been more than 3 years old who learned a lot through her experience. The little girl was intrigued by the shelled creatures in the tide pools on the rocks near the ocean. She bent down and picked some up to examine. When she was done examining them she put them on the rock out of the water. Her uncle told her not to move the shells because they need the water to live. (It appeared he was trying to emphasize that you should put things back where you got them from.) The girl took heed to his warnings and put the shells back. As she and her family walked a little further down the rocks she came to an area where the water had recessed and there were a lot of shells on dry areas of the rocks. The young girl bent down and proceeded to pick up and move all of the shells into the nearest tide pool about ten centimeters away. There were many shells for her to move but she methodically went to each one and gently moved it. Her mother got frustrated with all the time that the little girl was taking in her little project and tried to explain to the girl that she was misunderstanding the situation. The mother told the little girl, “what your uncle forgot to mention was that the high tide is going to come and the water will raise back up to cover those shells that are out of the water. You do not need to move them to the water because the water will come to them.” The little girl continued to move a couple more of the shells and then she stopped. She stood up and then continued walking along with her family.

This little girl learned many things from her experience at the Royal National Park. She learned about tides and how the water changes levels throughout the day. She learned about the animals inside the shells and how they need water to live. This is similar to Mosston’s Discovery style of learning (Mosston, 1981). The Discovery style of learning is focuses on the learner directing the area of learning and the teacher helping the learner to broaden their scope of understanding and their horizons. Having the learning environment of a park invites creative discovery into the lesson. It allows the students to determine the focus of their learning. Her parents did not bring her to the Royal National Park on Sunday April 6th 2008 to teach her about tides and the animals in the shells specifically. The little girl did not come there with a preconceived notion of what she wanted to learn that day. It all started with her curiosity and blossomed from there.

Social learning

Social learning teaches how to interact in social settings and can be affected by the willingness to participate and enthusiasm of everyone involved. “Our own individual fulfillment requires that we be socially conscious, that we pay attention to the needs, purposes and desires of others” (Ziniewicz 1999, 15 para).

For example, in one of my camp counselor experiences I lead a game called getting to know trees where people paid attention not only to the environment but also to the needs of others. The goal of the game was to help kids observe nature in different ways and learn how to be more descriptive about their observations. In the game everyone is in partners and one partner is blindfolded. The sighted partner leads the blindfolded partner to a tree and places their hand on the tree. The blindfolded partner then uses their senses other than vision to observe the tree. When the blindfolded partner feels that they know the tree the sighted partner leads them back to the circle. When everyone is done the blindfolds are taken off. The people that were blindfolded take turns describing their tree in as much detail as possible. They are encouraged to be specific and not just say the bark was rough and it was a big tree. Then the describers get a chance to guess which tree is ‘theirs’.

This game helps kids get in touch with nature and helps teach them to use all of their senses to observe what is around them. Observation skills developed in this game can be used in other aspects of life and is a valuable skill to have. This game also requires the participants to trust each other and be sensitive to the needs of their partner. These are social skills that the students need to learn. These experiences lead directly into decisions the students have to make in other aspects for their lives. For example, choosing to work with people you trust or trusting the people that you work with are important skills in many fields of work. Learning in an experiential education setting is not just about one goal defined by the game or activity but encompasses all of the thinking strategies and processing involved to get tan end result from the activity.

Range and Depth of Learning

An outdoor setting can have a very large range and depth of learning. “Human experience represents nature’s highest fulfillment.” (Ziniewicz 1999, 5 para) When students experience what they are learning, rather than when they are just told a piece of information, they can internalize it and learn from it. Learning is a process of understanding information. John Dewey suggests that learning is best done when both the mind and the body are actively adapting to the environment around the learner (Ziniewicz 1999). When primary students walk through the park and see the signs about erosion and the fixtures built to protect against erosion they will understand the concept of erosion better than they could if they were reading it in a book. Consciously thinking and asking questions requires the learner to be actively engaged in the experience.

“Eaton (2000) found that outdoor learning experiences were more effective for developing cognitive skills than classroom based learning” (as cited by Dillon et. al 2006, p107). In classroom based learning students are not using all of their senses to interpret the situation or trying to draw conclusions from observations. They are not required to seek out the knowledge on their own. When primary students hear the roar and see the splash of the waterfall they can think about the power behind the water and they can better understand uses in hydroelectric power. Neill says, “65%!o(MISSING)f those who participate in adventure programs are better off than those who do not participate” (Neill & Richards 1998, p4). Although every student may not be attending to the environment, most certainly are. This statistic indicates that range and depth of learning is more complete in an outdoor experience than learning from a book or in the classroom. The little girl, referenced above, now has a deeper understanding about tides than she would if she read it in a book. I would further add, from my own experience, that the holistic nature of an outdoor or experiential education approach would lead to individuals who are more confident of their knowledge and better able to use that knowledge in different situations.

Outdoor education is vital to the holistic learning of children. Dewey’s philosophy and the constructivist theory say that children learn best by doing and experiencing. The Royal National is a wonderful place for them to learn and experiment and has lots of treasures of information for the children to discover. Each field trip to the park would be different and each student would learn something different but everyone would get something out of the experience.

Reference List

Dillon, J. & Rickinson, R. & Teamey, K. & Morris, M. & Young Choi, M. & Sanders, D. & Benefield, P. (2006) The value of outdoor learning: evidence from research in the UK and elsewhere. School Science Review. 87(320). Retreived April 11, 2008 from http://www.ase.org.uk/htm/members_area/journals/ssr/ssr_march-06/value-107-112.pdf

Ford, P. (1986) Outdoor Education: Definition and Philosophy. Retrieved April 12, 2008 from http://eric.ed.gov:80/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/2f/2d/e6.pdf

Light, R. (2008) Complex learning theory- Its epistemology and its assumptions about learning: Implications for Physical Education. Journal of Teaching Physical Education 27(1) p21-37

Mosston, M. (1981) Teaching Physical Education. Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company

Neill, J. T. (1997) Outdoor Education in the Schools: What can it achieve? A Paper presented to the 10th National Outdoor Education Conference, Sydney Australia January 20-24, 1997 Retrieved April 11, 2008 from http://www.wilderdom.com/pdf/Neill1997SchoolsOE.pdf

Neill, J.T. & Richards, G.E. (1998) Does Outdoor Education Really Work> A Summary of Recent Meta-Analyses. Australian Journal of Outdoor Education. 3(1) Retrieved April 13, 2008 from http://wilderdom.com/pdf/Neill&Richards1998DoesOutdoorEducationReallyWork.pdf

New South Wales Government: Department of Environment and Climate Change (last updated January 17 2008) Royal National Park. Retrieved March 16, 2008 from http://www2.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/parks.nsf/ParkContent/N0030?OpenDocument&ParkKey=N0030&Type=Xo

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (n.d.) Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. Retrieved April 10, 2008 from http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/enchanted_rock/

Ziniewicz, G. L. (1999) John Dewey: Experience and Nature: Individuality and Association. Retrieved April 9, 2008 from http://www.fred.net/tzaka/deweynew.html

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Photos

Wattamolla Beach
A beautiful lagoon and beach

A really big leaf
look at my hand in size comparison to this leaf!

Erosion Path
Here is what I was describing about a metal path built to prevent erosion

Bottlebrush
That is what this plant is called because that's what it looks like. Here are different stages of the "seed?"

Can you see them?
It looks like faces in the rock.

Waterfall
At the end of our trail we found this secluded little waterfall and swimming hole.