This fall my school, Bulkley Valley Christian School (BVCS), embarked on a new approach to experiential learning. Our plan involved sending each grade on a different experiential trip for the first full week of school. Our school has a rich history of ensuring that all grades are involved in experiential learning through various experiences and trips. We live in a beautiful part of the world, and students often engage in outdoor experiences, such as multi-day hikes, canoe trips, and winter camping. Sometimes classes or groups have explored different parts of our province such as Barkerville, a heritage site celebrating a mining town from the Cariboo gold rush, or the historical site of Fort St. James. We intentionally coordinate these trips to engage in them collectively and purposefully.
We live in a beautiful part of the world, and students often engage in outdoor experiences, such as multi-day hikes, canoe trips, and winter camping.
Our school is guided by our GROW acronym (Grace, Respect, Ownership, Wonder). Each year we focus on one word of the acronym, with this year’s focus being wonder. We felt there was no better way to experience the awe and wonder of our Heavenly Father’s creation than to explore the beautiful province we live in. This article will explain our vision, our plan, and the trips we took last year, as well as our reflections on them, so that we can benefit other educators and schools as they walk their journey of integrating experiential education opportunities into their programs.
Our Vision
Our school has been guided by a conviction that experiential trips are an essential part of our program. We do not view them as “extra-curricular” or an addition to our academic and non-academic offerings. Instead, we believe these trips allow us to fulfill our mission as a Christian school to powerfully encounter the diversity of creation. Romans 1 tells us that it is through God’s creation that we fully know his “invisible attributes” (1:20). We embrace the definition of creation that encompasses both the physical world and the unlimited creativity God has gifted human beings with, readily evident in many aspects of culture, such as music and the dramatic arts.
These experiences build relationships between and among students, staff members, parent chaperones, and members of the wider community.
While this connection to our vision is central to our rationale, we also understand the many positive impacts that experiential educational opportunities have on students and school culture. These experiences build relationships between and among students, staff members, parent chaperones, and members of the wider community. A recent book called Reclaiming Our Students suggests that these relationships are important to all students, but especially those who struggle with anxiety, aggression, and passivity (Beach and Neufeld-Strijack). Research also demonstrates that experiential education helps students be more engaged with their school, triggers identity formation, and fosters higher-level thinking and reflection (Eyler 24–26). At a time when some schools and districts are moving toward standardization or a more rigid curriculum, experiential education opportunities are even more important. At BVCS, feedback from students and parents through the last number of years has demonstrated the positive impact of experiential education on the lives of our students.
We … realized by engaging in these trips simultaneously that we could be more intentional and purposeful in our approach.
Our Plan
When we decided last spring to send all our students out during the same week to a variety of different locations, our desire was an extension of trips that already had a rich history at our school. We also realized by engaging in these trips simultaneously that we could be more intentional and purposeful in our approach. We wanted to incorporate the following elements into nearly every trip:
- A significant outdoor component due to our location and the beauty and physical diversity of our province
- Purposeful community-building activities, including self-reflection and group discussion
- A service component and/or an emphasis on the transformative nature of the experience
- Significant emphasis on relationships between students, between students and teachers/parent chaperones, and between students and the community
The Trips
- Our grade 8 class went on a multi-day camping trip to a beautiful basin close to our community. Students spent two days planning the trip together, including meals, packing lists, and safety information. The trip involved multiple hikes, community-building activities, devotional times, and various outdoor activities.
- Our grade 9 class spent the week on a variety of outdoor activities. They went rock climbing on the side of an incredible canyon, spent a day on a major hike, and spent two days at a Bible camp engaging in a service project and participating in several outdoor activities.
- Our grade 10 class traveled to the Nisga’a nation territory in northwest British Columbia, an area rich in history with vast areas of land covered with lava from a volcano that erupted several hundred years ago. The group spent the week camping, learning about Nisga’a history and culture, hiking to the cone of the volcano, and engaging in several outdoor activities.
- Our grade 11 class traveled to Vancouver to engage in arts-related activities, including attending a Broadway play, the Vancouver Fringe Festival, and the Bard on the Beach Festival. The group also completed the Grouse Grind (a 1–2 hour fitness test up the side of a mountain), boated through the waters around Vancouver, and spent a morning volunteering at the Fraser Valley Gleaners, a charity that makes food for developing countries.
- Our grade 12 class spent five days on Haida Gwaii, a remote and beautiful island off the west coast of British Columbia. Students learned about the Haida culture through museum visits and various tours, connected with students from a local school, and took a zodiac boat trip to an ancient Haida village.
After all the trips, students spent time reflecting on their experiences in small groups and written assignments. Students also engaged in structured discussions and presented their trips to other grades. A small group of students shared a presentation with the parent community at a school society meeting.
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Works Cited
Beach, Hannah, and Tamara Neufeld Strijack. Reclaiming Our Students: Why Children Are More Anxious, Aggressive, and Shut Down Than Ever—and What We Can Do About It. Page Two, 2020.
Eyler, J. “The Power of Experiential Education.” Liberal Education, vol. 95, no. 4, 2009, pp. 24–31.
Chris Steenhof is the principal of Bulkley Valley Christian School and was able to lead and enjoy one of these amazing trips. This article and the success of the other trips would not have been possible without the lead teachers of the various experiences: James Horner, Julie Monn-Djasngar, Emily Stolte, Amelia Weme, Wes Boonstra, and Tara Corneau.