Cub Killer

Tracy Ellis

9/21/17

After spending the last few days of our canoe expedition being cold and wet all day, waking up to the Illinois humidity was wonderful. Right Chris? We began the day with a good breakfast and then took off to Atwood Nature Center in Rockford, Illinois. It was such a great feeling to be back in my familiar territory and see that things didn’t change as much as I felt like they did in a month. We reached Atwood and met with the manager, Becky, who prepped us on what our day was going to look like, as well as answered all the questions we had about Atwood, and the outdoor education field. We were then sent out on our first activity which was participating in the best game of tag anyone will ever play. This was one of the final activities that the group of 6^th graders was doing while wrapping up their two night stay at Atwood. My fellow ECOEEANS and I were given the job during this game of tag to throw tennis balls at the poor defenseless children. Unfortunately for the select few kids that thought it would be a good idea to wear Cubs shirts, I took it upon myself to only target them for their bad taste in baseball teams. (Go Cardinals) After tiring myself out because pretty much every 6^th grader is faster than me, the game ended and we took a much needed break for lunch and I ate more food than my stomach could take which was a nice change. We then continued shadowing and seeing how their program was run, but this time it was with a new group of 6^th graders. It was really cool to see how much impact outdoor education really has on the kids. Even if this is not the career path I am wanting to take, seeing kids get excited when learning about nature was inspiring and promising. We then made our way out of Rockford and to the beautiful town of Oregon, Illinois where we have currently set up camp and Lowden State Park. Tomorrow we will be visiting NIU’s outdoor campus-Lorado Taft. I am excited to learn more about the outdoor education field as well as hear all that Boz and the others have to say about Taft. I cannot wait to hear about the impact Taft made on her while she worked there, as well as the impact she made on it.