Wandering Daisy wrote:Food! What surprised me about teaching at NOLS, is when we go course evaluations from students, the thing they liked the most and said they learned much, was ration planning and cooking. Eating is very basic. Really motivates people.
Have the kids do all the food planning. Learn nutritional value of food. Go shopping. Have a budget. How many calories do you need? How do other nutrients make you a stronger backpacker? Hydration. Why do we need all that water. Lots of math here. Then practice cooking. Cooking is chemistry-science. Food comes in a box - but how did it get in that box? Where does your food come from?
Hands on skills. Safety in handling hot pots. How to build a fire. What is a fire anyway? How does it produce heat.
Fishing! Lots of biology here. Disect a fish. Back to food - how much nutritional value in a fish. And food from the fish's perspective. Tie flies. Why to fish like certain insects vs others? Fishing rod. What is the physics of a cast?
Exercise physiology- how does your body work when you exercise? Why does altitude matter? How does food fit into all this?
Great ideas. They will definitely help with planning and shopping. One of the important ways to get them to enjoy backpacking is to eat great food, so the whole thing feels like treat. Roughing it will come when with the weather.
I like the physics of casting idea. I already have more than we can do in three days. I'll start simple and add from there. I'm planning to make a pot cozy and we can do some experiments to perhaps figure by some experiments and measurements whether it's worth its weight. But they would have to have an interest in this, which is more likely to come after enjoying the trip. Goal #1 is still to get them to love backpacking.
Now I'm wondering what courses any of you may know of (or teach) in the Sierra? (See I didn't use the plural. So I must be referring to a woman, right ERIC?).