There’s always downtime on residential courses. Students and instructors need time to relax, work on academic homework, and process the experiences they’ve had so far. For some students, downtime is frustrating. They learn by doing and don’t want to stop. So along with improving our food systems on campus, we’ll be putting in two additions to the field school that will encourage self-motivated learning, while also offering a fun way to spend a few hours outside of the day to day learning that goes on during courses.

The first is a “roving” archery course. Roving is a method of practicing archery without standing in front of the same target for an extended period of time. We’ll have a course plotted out on the field school property and a variety of targets and props to practice with. Roving in some ways, is for archery what “put-put” is for golf. A lot of fun to do with a group, deceptively challenging shots, and the fact that beginners sometimes do just as well as experienced shooters.

Secondly, we’ll be creating a Navigation and Orienteering practice course. We teach map and compass on most of our courses, but it can be a pretty abstract topic without real-world practice. This course will allow students to utilize what they’ve been learning and will be able to be modified so that students can race.

It’s always exciting to see the field school grow, especially in ways that facilitate students blowing off steam and learning in the process. Can’t wait to do a little roving with some of you.