KEN TURNER L4L5 SUMMER 2013 Cycle of Inquiry: 4H-Challenge Course at Camp Long: Attack the Gap The ‘trust fall’ during facilitator training, March 2013 (Photo K.Turner)
Jan 02, 2016
KEN TURNERL4L5SUMMER 2013
Cycle of Inquiry:4H-Challenge Course at Camp Long:
Attack the Gap
The ‘trust fall’ during facilitatortraining, March 2013(Photo K.Turner)
Audience
Teachers, principals, and other Seattle Public School leaders trying to close the achievement gap in middle/ high school.
Interagency HS 9th graderson Tension Traverse(Photo: K.Turner)
Challenge Course: LOW
The 4H Challenge Course at Camp Long seeks to promote
DECISION MAKINGCOMMUNICATIONTEAMWORK/
COLLABORATIONthrough 13 low elementactivities and initiatives.
Greenworks students working on spotting sequence (photo G. Benedict)
Challenge Course: HIGH
And the high course encourages
SELF-ESTEEM/ SELF-EFFICACY
through 2 unique elevated structures.
Facilitator Melissa practicingacross split rail traverse(photo K.Turner)
Locus of Control and Challenge Courses
Newberry and Lindsay found that just after an 8-hour low course experience , participants were ‘significantly more internally oriented’ than those not participated.
The WALL often represents a challenge or obstacle in a participant’s life.(photo K.Turner)
Problem of Practice
Since the opening of the Challenge Course in August 2011, only 3 different public school groups have used the course; about 60 students total. This is less than 5% of the total number of participants we have served.
Interagency HS teen on Nitro Crossings (K.Andrews )
Problem of Practice continued
Most groups have been private schools and universities.
Problem: Challenge Course was put at Camp Long to specifically work with underrepresented students who typically have an internal Loci of Control.
We need to be working with more youth at risk!!!The park has close proximity to Rainier
valley and West Seattle and is on a major bus route.
3 Grants with 1 Purpose
WSU Extension 4H granted Seattle Parks $40,000 to work with youth development in 2011
Department of Neighborhoods awarded
$70, 000 in 2012 to work with local schools and youth programs and was matched by King County Parks with $50,000
Achievement Gap in Seattle
For 70+ years, an obvious achievement gap has continued between the North and South schools in Seattle.
*
Camp Long is marked red(Beadie 2013)
Theory of Action
If leadership promotes Challenge Course usage and purpose, schools will bring students to the challenge course.
If schools (teachers) bring students to the challenge course, students will strengthen their life skill development.
If students develop strengthen their life skills development, the achievement gap can be decreased.
Claim
Challenge coursesparticipation canimprove life skilldevelopment, thusdecreasing theachievement gap
Facilitator Anuja gettingthrough the net at 40 feet!(Photo: K.Turner)
Evidence
Evidence 1: historic Challenge Course data
Evidence 2: CSHS has some lower life skill data scores on Healthy Youth data than other SPS and the state average.
Evidence 3: CSHS Life Skill Evaluation from their visit on April 5th, 2013
More Evidence 3: Interagency High School data from their April visits.
Evidence 1:Historic Challenge Course data
“Challenge courses are an effective tool for impacting a variety of educational and psychological constructs with a variety of participants” (Gillis/ Speelman 2008)
Increased self-efficacy in middle school students (Conley, Calarella, and Young 2007)
And Loci of Control study (Lindsay and Newberry 2000)
Evidence 2: Healthy Youth data 2010
Cleveland High School students have the ‘worst’ personal rating of their quality of life.
(Healthy Youth Data 2010, 10th grade HS)
Balla
rd
Wes
t Sea
ttle
Stat
e Avg
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
My Quality of Life is %LOW
My Qual-ity of Life is LOW
Question 136: Youth Quality of Life
Evidence 3
CSHS (14) students spent ½ day on the Camp Long Challenge Course on Friday, April 5th and filled out this evaluation right afterwards.
Evidence 3: Chief Sealth High School, mixed grade classFriday, April 5th (mean score changes)
14 participants (8 males, 6 females)
Question 2Question 3
Question 7
Before Challenge After Challenge
Interagency High School (mean score changes)three different April visits
Question 2Question 3
Question 7
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
Before Challenge After Challenge
21 evaluations over 3 different visits (9th graders based on credits, but various ages)
Results
Participants at CSHS and IHS
showed improved life skill
development
Participants showing improved life skills should help decrease
achievement gap
We only have data from 14 CSHS students, as well as 21 Interagency High School students for 3+ hours, imagine working with ALL of them on both the Low and High elements for 12-16 hours.
Next steps?
Replace current Life Skills Evaluation to Pre and Post survey for better data collection
Collect data on entire grades inside a school or the entire school over several visits
Fantasy: 4 visits by same student cohort
ElementsOrca watch,
Galloping Gertie, Nitro (Low elements)
Deception Pass, Support Sequence, The Wall (Low)
Mt Challenger: Vertical Play Pen, Power Pole
The Enchantments: Hub and Spoke course with dual zip lines
OutcomesStart breaking down barriers,
promote support of each other, teamwork utilizing low-risk elements
Continue breaking down barriers, promoting problem solving utilizing medium-risk elements
Support peers’ challenges, more support and trust development, personal reflection on high course
Promote self-esteem with success of team and self on hub and spoke high course, self-reflection and self-assessment
Final Thoughts
As Paul Tough argues in his new book How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character , “skills like perseverance, conscientiousness, and optimism” are often more important in a child’s success than scores on achievement test. (Tough, 2012)A student testing her
tenacity on the high course (Photo K.Turner)
Citation
Camp Long/ WSU 4H data compiled from CSHS students (April 5-2013) and Interagency High School (April 4, 11, 25-2013)
Conley, L: Caldarella, P; and Young, E. Evaluation of a ropes course experience for at-risk secondary school students. Journal of Experiential Education, 30 (1), 21-35
Gillis, H.L. and Speelman, E. (2008) Are Challenge (Ropes) Courses an Effective Tool? Journal of Experiential Education, 31 (2), 111-135
Lindsay, J.F. and Newberry, E.H. (2000) The impact of social skills training and challenge course training on locus of control of youth from residential care. Journal of Experiential Education, 23 (1), 29-42
Tough, P. (2012). Paul tough: writer and speaker. Retrieved from http://www.paultough.com/
Washington State Healthy Youth Survey 2010. (2011) Various Seattle area public schools. RMC Research Corporation.