Investigating the stress response in outdoor education and how to get the most out of it
Details:
4:35 – 5:25 pm
5th of December
Room: Sports Pavillion
Paul Banks
In this talk, I intend to illustrate the connection between Cognitive Load Theory (Bandwidth), stress, safety and the neuroscience that may affect one’s ability to learn in a way that allows for Executive Function to occur. We will explore how we work with a brain that is made for 12,000 years ago, a brain that is constantly looking for dangers to a brain that is working for today, using the newest part of our brain, the Prefrontal Cortex. I believe outdoor education has a key role to play in providing students and teenagers opportunities to experience stress in a safe way and provide them strategies to cope with it in everyday situations.
About the Presenter
Current campus Principal of Rubicon Outdoor School, Nayook‚ Campus. I have been in this leadership role for almost 8 years, driving educational‚ leadership‚ for all staff at the Nayook campus and managing the day-to-day running of this school site. Rubicon Outdoor School, Nayook campus is a small and unique Department of Education Residential Outdoor Secondary School in rural Victoria. Our vision is to empower students to develop lifelong, positive growth. We do this through the provision of outdoor learning programs. Each week students attend this special place from a wide variety of settings including Specialist, Koorie School programs and mainstream secondary schools particularly targeting schools from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
