This day-long outdoor and place-based learning workshop features a return trip excursion between downtown Kingston and Cedar Island, where we will explore this haven of tranquility in the St. Lawrence Islands National Park. Place-based learning, which considers “how people connect with places and how those connections influence…engagement with the environment” (Ardoin, Schuh, & Gould, 2012, p. 584) will offer a framework for us to consider our own engagement with our environments of learning. In turn, we will engage with the conference theme of transformation, reflecting on the role, if any, of the natural environment as a catalyst for our own transformative learning (Walter, 2011).
We will paddle canoes and kayaks to the Cedar Island destination, explore various facets of the natural St. Lawrence environment under expert guidance, prepare a communal lunch, enjoying the use of a wood stove at the picnic shelter. Participants will undertake a moderately challenging day involving physical activity and experiential learning (Kolb, 1984) consisting of active experimentation in place, reflective observation, recording impressions and drawing on personal experiences to conceptualize a sense of these activities in the context of personal pedagogies.
This unique workshop aims to make the most of the Thousand Islands environment, creating conditions designed to offer memorable individual, small group, and whole group experiences for twenty-five STLHE Conference participants.
In the words of Baldwin et al. (2013): “the common thread running through all of our teaching is that place matters because it encourages new ways of questioning and being in the world.” P. 2.
Note: Although the physical demands of the day may be described as “moderate” and no particular paddling expertise and outdoor skills are required, to take part you should feel comfortable in a kayak or canoe in varying weather conditions. The Cedar Island destination is not far from the mainland, but please be aware that the workshop will be held in a relatively isolated natural environment.