TEACHING BY ADVENTURE

This is an archived website.
Please visit www.angusadventures.com for current information.

The Around-the-World Learning Quest is an adventure learning program designed for students in grades 3 to 6.

STUDENTS: If you are a student visit our Students Corner. Click here.
TEACHERS: If you are a teacher visit our Teachers Corner. Click here.

Project Description

This project outline is divided into five sections:

1. Introduction
2. Expedition Summary
3. Breakdown of the World Learning Quest.
a. Presentations
b. Siberia-Canada Classroom Connections (SCCC)
c. Atlantic Ocean Connections
d. The World Learning Quest in Curricula
4. Making it Happen
5. Why the World Learning Quest?

1) Introduction
Canadian adventurer, filmmaker and author Colin Angus receives frequent requests to make presentations in elementary and secondary schools. His reception among students is consistently positive, as the adventure-based, motivational content of his talks stimulates the imagination of young minds. Of all his adventures, Colin’s upcoming journey carries the greatest potential for educational content. The expedition team is creating a program that teachers can apply to a variety of curricula. The team’s goal is to facilitate learning and discussion of global issues such as cultural diversity, the geographical and cultural changes that coincide with global warming, and a recognition of an individual’s responsibility as a global citizen. We will make these concepts accessible to students from late elementary age upwards, in an engaging format designed to suit a range of curriculum goals.

2) Expedition Summary
Our objective is to travel around the world using only human energy, without the assistance of motors or sails.

The team departed Vancouver June 1 2004, heading north by bicycle for 3000 km to the Yukon River near Whitehorse in the Yukon Territories. From here we canoed and rowed for 3000 km to the Bering Sea, then continue rowing from the mouth of the Yukon River, across 400 km of ocean to reach Siberia. We hiked 800 km over roadless terrain until the bogs froze and the ground was covered by snow, then we switched to skis and specially designed bikes. In Moscow, the first part of the expedition Vancouver to Moscow draws to a close.

Julie will rejoin Colin for the second half of the expedition – Moscow to Vancouver. We will cycle out of Russia and travel through Ukraine, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. We will travel through some of the world's most fascinating cities including Venice, Kiev, Budapest, and Ljubljana, and meet people of vastly different cultures. Our 8,300 km row across the Atlantic Ocean will begin in Portugal. We will prepare the boat for our crossing and the 100 days we will spend at sea. We need to take enough food to last us a year at home - the strenuous work means that we eat 3 times more than normal! We will also take a satellite phone and laptop computer so we can stay in touch. The Atlantic Ocean is home to a lot of different animals and we'll have flying fish, sharks and whales accompany us on our journey. Once we arrive in Florida, we'll quickly get our land legs and begin the long cycle home to Vancouver. Traveling through the United States and Canada we expect to be back home by May 2006.

3) Breakdown of the World Learning Quest.

a) Presentations
The team made school presentations prior to their departure, and will make additional presentations after their return. Presentations take a variety of formats depending on factors of time, audience size and course requirements. They may focus on themes such as teamwork, goal-setting, the intercultural experience, or the realities of environmental change, among other topics.

Pre-trip presentations also drew on Colin’s previous expeditions, which include a crossing of the South American continent via the Amazon River system, a descent from source-to-sea of the world’s fifth-longest river (from Mongolia to the Arctic Ocean), and five years of life at sea. Presentations prior to the Vancouver to Moscow Expedition also served to generate enthusiasm for the educational program to follow.

Following their expedition, the team will have an abundance of personal learning and photographic documentation to share with students, in a format suited to meet the needs of desired teaching outcomes.

b) Siberia-Canada Classroom Connections (SCCC)
Live connections between Siberian locals and Canadian classrooms are an important part of this project. At appointed times, the expedition team, including a Siberian adventurer Yulya Kudryavtseva as translator, organized groups of Siberian youth and other significant individuals to transmit interviews via satellite telephone to classrooms back in Canada.

c) Atlantic Ocean Connections
The 2005/06 segment of the program will go live in October 2005 when we leave Portugal and will end when we row into Florida in February 2006. While we are on the Atlantic Ocean, we will have access to an Iridium satellite phone, laptop and video equipment. We will post regular updates from the Atlantic using this equipment and will be able to send audio, text and photo updates. The updates for the school program will be designed to address topics in climate change, ocean dynamics, marine animals, etc. The website also provides links to related curriculum, lesson plans and games that teachers and students are able to use.

d) World Learning Quest in Curricula
Recognizing that the learning outcomes pursued in classrooms depend on grade level, course curriculum, and personal teaching styles, we have designed the program to be as adaptable as possible to different lesson plans. We intend it as a resource to be used creatively by teachers depending on their needs.

The common thread will be a context of adventure through remote Northern geography and cultures, interviews with indigenous and non-indigenous residents of present-day Siberia, and access to information dispatched by modern explorers with an interest in culture, history, the natural world and the effects of global warming in northern communities and ecosystems. The Atlantic Ocean and our unique traverse of it, will allow concepts of geography, weather patterns, animal biology and others to be brought into the classroom.

The spirit of adventure is inherently motivational to students, and we have an enthusiasm to which many students can easily relate. Teachers are encouraged to take advantage of the natural curiosity the adventure inspires.

During both the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 school years the expedition will frequently transmit information from the field. The team will be conducting research for journalistic updates to Canadian publications, filming the environment and interviewing locals. They will each be equipped with a collapsible keyboard, and a personal digital assistant (a.k.a. palm pilot) connectable to their satellite phone with data-transmission capability. Much of the information they transmit will be stored in an internet domain accessible to students for classroom use. Students will be able to access audio interviews, video footage, photographs and text updates.

4) Making it Happen
The Vancouver to Moscow expedition began June 1. They have completed the pre-departure school presentations and are conducting school presentations from the field by satellite phone and interactive internet communications.

Schools across BC have become involved in the World Adventure Learning Quest. We have partnered with School District 51, located in south-central British Columbia, to develop the program. Their assistance has been pivotal in its design and implementation in classrooms. Communication with classrooms from the field and Siberia-Canada Classroom Connections (SCCC) occur through our interactive website and satellite phone, made possible by sponsorship from Caorda Solutions, a Victoria-based internet applications company, and Iridium Satellite Solutions.

Currently we are preparing the program for the 2005/2006 school year. We continue to seek feedback from teachers and schools who are interested in participating in the program. This feedback is invaluable and helps us create a program that best suits Canadian classrooms.

5) Why the World Learning Quest?
From its conception the expedition has been viewed as a vehicle to create environmental awareness that inspires positive action. Colin sees this coming expedition – to be his last major human-powered journey – as a chance to give back to the planet’s threatened cultures and natural systems. The expedition route was designed to pass through northern regions afflicted with some of the planet’s most advanced rates of climate change and associated stresses. The light we shine on this Northern reality will foster a recognition of the forces at play in a fragile biosphere.

The expedition team enjoys the rewards of contributing to intellectual growth among youth. Recognizing that students are the leaders of tomorrow’s world, they see classrooms as the ideal forum to discuss issues the expedition is designed to raise. We expect that in the course of learning through the World Learning Quest, youth will come to view themselves as global citizens with an understanding of the connectedness of humans and nature.