BSE321: As an outdoor education and eco-literacy specialist in the Kilat Outdoor Environmental Learning (KOEL) Centre: Ecological Literacy and Sustainability in Outdoor Education Assignment, SUSS, Singapore

As an outdoor education and eco-literacy specialist in the Kilat Outdoor Environmental Learning (KOEL) Centre, you have been tasked to lead a team of four outdoor educators to design and conduct a 5-day outdoor education program for a group of 40 students aged between 10 to 12 years in a Primary school located in Upper Bukit Timah Road. A vast majority of the students reside in the urban public housing areas close to the school.

The focus of the program is on the development of eco-literacy and education for sustainability through developing a connection to nature and a sense of place in the locales. Besides introducing a series of outdoor activities to enable the students to connect with nature and local places, the school would like the program to include excursions to at least two nature parks/reserves including Dairy Farm Nature Park and/or Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, Rifle Range Nature Park or Bukit Batok Nature Park.

Your team of four outdoor educators with ages ranging from 22 to 30 years old came from an urban city background and are competent in delivering outdoor adventure learning programs in an urban setting but lack the competencies in delivering eco-literacy and education for sustainability.

The development of the program needs to be underpinned by the latest and sound research in outdoor and environmental education.

• Describe the profiles of the target group of your outdoor education program, including your appraisal of their current level of environmental awareness, appreciation, and responsibility. Include any other values and characteristics you deem may be important.
• Outline the overall concept and educational framework that underpins the outdoor education program, including the following:
  i. Programme education goals that are age appropriate
  ii. Learning outcomes and competencies that are age appropriate
  iii. Teaching and learning approaches to be adopted based on relevant OE theories/literature/research
  iv. Programme synopsis
  v. Resource requirements
• Design the outdoor education programme, providing sufficient detail to demonstrate how the programme will achieve the proposed learning outcomes. You should include the overall programme structure that explains the various components of the programme, duration, location, the kinds of lessons/activities that will be taught and descriptions of these lessons/activities that are appropriate to the profile of the participants. In particular, show how the programme will be carried out in accordance with the teaching and learning approaches outlined in Part b).
• Indicate what and how you will develop the competencies of your team of four outdoor educators to enable them to plan and teach the programme effectively for the targeted young children. Highlight the other areas that you and your organisation will need to focus during the preparation and implementation phases of the programme.