By Hannah Showalter from College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University (CSBSJU)
One of the student-led projects this semester in Patagonia was an environmental education collaboration with a school near our base camp in Cochrane. The project was headed by students Caroline Loescher (Carleton College), Gus Edwards (Westminster University), and Kian Sia Su (CSBSJU). Their initial plan was to take the kids to Calluqueo; a glacier a few hours outside of Cochrane. But bad weather kept us home, Camping in Aquasol with little notice. It was a scramble to put together, we spent the night before running into town to scrounge up over 140 hotdogs, cutting wood with a broken ax, and bracing ourselves for the craziness that would be 30 twelve-year-olds. But we welcomed the first of two groups of sixth graders on the 14th of November excitedly.
I was particularly excited for the opportunity to do some Environmental Ed work this semester. Back home in Minnesota, Kian and I spent the last school year working as Naturalists for our school’s outdoor university. Leading field trips being the largest part of our job, Kian was perfect for the project. Him, Caroline, and Gus had drawn up an incredible lesson plan that met their curriculum requirements in a fun and engaging way. It was immediately clear that the first group of kids was excited to be joining us at Aquasol as they ran off the bus.
The day started with a big game of entourage (a rock, paper, scissors tournament) and then we split the kids off into three groups. With a pair of chaperones, the kids rotated through three stations in the morning. I spent the morning with Kian and one of our instructors, Jose Cruz, at the fire station. We talked about what was needed to make a fire (“Oxígeno! Combustible! Calor!”). We talked about the stages of matter, melting an ice cube over a whisper light and joking around with how funny the English words “evaporation” and “fusion” were. We played games to kill some time and keep things interesting, and the highlight of the station was definitely the s’mores.
There wasn’t a single kid who had tried the combo before and trying to convince them to put the marshmallow in between the crackers was a bigger challenge than you would think but they were all pleasantly surprised by the treats and they enjoyed collecting wood to throw on the small fire in the rain. The morning went smoothly for everyone and the cook crew’s lunch was a great break before the afternoon hike. In the ten minutes I spent in the quincho for lunch I had never heard the phrase “glizzy” so much. It became the running joke for the week as we talked about the boiled hotdogs—boiled glizzys.
While the kids played soccer and tag before we began our next activity, a small group of us took a brief nap, shocked at how tired we already were from wrangling the kids all morning. We hiked up the hillside behind Aquasol and in the high winds of the afternoon, the kids discovered (with the help of Gus) a new game using their jackets to make wings. And after a brief activity reflecting on the past, present, and future of Cochrane, we ran back down the hill to play games while we waited for the bus. I found myself in a very involved game of hide and seek that requires more jumping off of and climbing onto rocks than I remember hide and seek ever having.
We ended the day sharing what we liked most about the day and I was happy to hear that hide and seek was in fact a highlight. When the class left, we gathered to debrief on what went well and take notes for the second day before breaking for a much needed rest. The energy from the kids had both worn us out and made us somewhat crazy. After dinner, I found myself in a high stakes glizzy joust using the leftover hotdogs that ended with a soggy hotdog to the back for Elena Prichard (Carleton College).
We had the next day off to decompress and as there was some mysterious illness circulating, rest was appreciated. When the second group of kids came on the 16th, we were better prepared but a bit more delirious. Kian and I spent half the time at our station dancing around like flames and forgetting how to talk. The lunch conversation circulated around what states were the best (Minnesota was unfortunately outvoted despite heavy protest from the Minnesota residents such as myself). The rain kept everyone inside for the rest of the afternoon and Caroline heroically led a number of indoor games to keep the restless kids from bouncing off the walls.
The exhaustion that followed as the bus pulled out was reminiscent of my time spent working at summer camps. Sad that it was over, but in desperate need of a nap, I hosted a small movie marathon in my tent for Elena and Harriet Winterer (Colby College) and only fell asleep three (maybe four) times.
In talking with my group that evening, I was impressed to hear that the kids were not only engaged when there was a s’more to be eaten, but the station led by Caroline, Brendon Dippen (Bowdoin College), and one of our instructors Ben had successfully taught the kids about water velocity and aquatic life. One group, when asked to find a bug for a scavenger hunt, went straight to the river and flipped over a rock excitedly. I was surprised to find a group of the students, at Aquasol again for a birthday party of some kind a week or so later, digging around in the river for snails.
Despite the exhaustion that followed, the environmental education project was one of my favorite things we’ve done during this semester. The entire process was messy and chaotic but that was part of the fun of it. And watching the kids get excited about the river bugs and melting ice reminded why I chose to participate in environmental studies at all. Watching these kids learn to love and take interest in this world makes me excited for the future and to see what they’ll do with the world we’re leaving them with. We reflected on this as the week went on, wondering if what we’re doing here will change the future for them. How can we set them up for a better future? Will we leave them with the destruction that our ancestors left us or will we be able to fix the mess we were given?