Outdoor Education at Collingwood’s Senior School has been a core part of the learning experience since the outset, but its history began as a grand experiment called Project Mackenzie. Named after founding Head David Mackenzie, the unique program began in 1988 with the recruitment of Richard and Sherry Wingate. The dynamic duo turned a co-curricular club for rowing and wilderness skills into a credentialed outdoor adventure curriculum, including hiking, caving, building and living in igloos, sea kayaking, and survival skills, plus more. It came to be known as PROMAC and even offered trips as exotic as trekking through tropical rainforests and hiking the Bavarian Alps.
 
In 2002, the program rebranded as EXPLORE and focused on Middle School students. Kids were placed in small and diverse tent groups, planned all their meals, and did their own shopping and food preparation. They learned teamwork and self-reliance - along with how to paddle a kayak across a windy inlet or construct a snow cave. Every student in Grade 8 and 9 spent one week each term out on a wilderness expedition and returned injected with self-worth and personal achievement.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic initiated a shift to a more personalized format for outdoor education. Students can now opt into immersive courses like Explore 9 or Outdoor Ed 11, and traditionally classroom-based courses like Earth Science and Life Science now have outdoor components. All Grade 8s and 9s also take ExL, which includes many outdoor adventures like fishing, hiking, and kayaking. 

Eric Waters, Explore Department Head at Morven, has been leading adventures since he joined Collingwood in 2002. He has many memories from his 22 years with the school. 

“In my first year working at Collingwood, we had an epic winter trip that involved going to Diamond Head while receiving 2 meters of snow over the course of 3 days,” he says. “It took us two days to get to a campsite that is normally attainable in a few hours. It was a bit much at the time but the students on that trip had an experience that will never be duplicated!”

Why does outdoor education remain a key component of experiential learning at Collingwood? Mr. Waters says technology has made this program even more vital.

“Nowadays, students spend a lot of time with technology and on devices. Outdoor education provides a venue for students to experience authentic social interactions and see, if only for a few days, what life is like without screens.”

His most recent Explore 9 students were quite vocal in their gratitude for the opportunity. They became a tight-knit group and were unanimous in agreement that time away from phones and devices was one of the key ingredients that made their learning experience special. 

As the kids say, “go touch grass” and get outside!