Program:
Patagonia Frontiers, in partnership with Steamboat Mountain School of Colorado, U.S.A. crafted and conducted a 23-day long Outdoor Education and Global Studies program in Patagonia, Chile. Thirteen high-school students and two teachers, along with Patagonia Frontiers instructors and support staff, traveled and camped in the Soler Valley on the edge of the Northern Patagonia Icefield, and further within the Aysén Region. The program centered around three main components: active adventure, cultural sharing, and academic curriculum.
The group’s route consisted of backpacking along wide, verdant valleys, old growth forests and pristine wild areas, and eventually led to an area adjacent to the Soler Glacier and surrounding mountains. Along the way, and throughout the program, students developed skills encompassing how to live and travel safely in the outdoors, leadership and communication techniques, decision making, hazard evaluation, cooking and trip planning.
Local gauchos also accompanied the course and horse packed supplemental rations and equipment between camps. Their company and logistical support offered excellent opportunities for students to learn about and engage in this unique lifestyle, try their hands at frontier skills, and to necessarily utilize their Spanish language and communication proficiencies outside of the traditional class setting.
This rich human and cultural interaction formed a vital element of the program and was further bolstered with visits along the route to remote, neighboring homesteads. Here, students lent a hand by helping to clear trail, there are no roads here, transport posts, wire and stays, and repair livestock corrals, all of which was incredibly helpful to the local settlers and highly appreciated.
Additional topics of inquiry were chosen to showcase special learning opportunities available within Patagonia Frontiers’ wilderness classroom, offering students a holistic view into the human-environment interactions that are so important in this region, and to introduce a broader understanding and relevance beyond.
Curriculum was structured across three streams of examination and emphasized a major theme in contemporary geography, interdependencies amongst topics, in this case the following: glaciology and glacial landforms, environmental change, past, present, and future, and Patagonia as an evolving cultural landscape.
WHAT STUDENTS AND TEACHERS HAD TO SAY:
“Patagonia Frontiers is an amazing partner for our school. It’s quite noticeable the poise and self-confidence with which students have returned from doing this program. It is noteworthy and impactful how students, especially at their age as teenagers, were offered opportunity to succeed, and to fail and to learn and develop from both. There was a real sense of, “Wow! It’s up to me!” They gained valuable perspectives by shouldering real responsibility and having to bear down and apply themselves to a necessary outcome. Students dug deep and discovered a level of grit and endurance they didn’t know was with them. The students learning to persevere through some discomfort was quite valuable. Not only is this useful in general but will be specifically important as these students participate in future school programs with upcoming classmates.”
“Patagonia was great, and we see your educational model can be used in many places, the skills you shared become universal geographically, showing Patagonia Frontiers can navigate students through their environment regardless of where it is. There was a very appropriate amount of academics mixed with the other learning opportunities. The amount of instruction and diversity of topics (academic, outdoor leadership skills, etc.) was well balanced per day while keeping the students engaged and allowing for good learning while not being overwhelming. The field section and level of expertise was great, just the right level for these students and an excellent balance of academics and physical activity. We really liked and learned from Patagonia Frontiers’ different ways of empowering the student leaders.”
“Even as experienced teachers, we learned new models of instruction that we wish to incorporate into our own programs and teaching techniques.”
“I learned not only to operate with different unknowns, I grew to enjoy them.”
“It was neat that we were given both the tools and the responsibility for results.”
“I had a blast and I’m in awe of people I’ve met, and things I’ve been able to accomplish.”
Downloadable PDF *forthcoming
Gallery:
Patagonia Frontiers Philosophy:
“To contact the deeper truth of who we are, we must engage in some activity or practice that questions what we assume to be true about ourselves.” ~A.H. Almaas
We design and lead wilderness education and leadership programs. Our educational programs work with high schools, universities, camps and other organizations to provide logistics and risk management oversight for the institution's established program or through our own outdoor, leadership and science curriculum.
Our mission is to advance outdoor education and conserve wilderness classroom, serving as an ally for the surrounding parks and communities. We create learning environments that invite students to expand their view of what is possible, both as an individual and as a group. Our intent is for students to gain knowledge, courage, and techniques necessary for implementing beneficial change, and the enthusiasm to positively impact our world and be dreamers and doers in their own lives.
"When we know that the animals and plants are part of who we are, we can listen and respond. Ignoring the trees is like ignoring our lungs when they are congested and we can't breathe. Extinction of the songbirds means the end of our living music. When the planet herself calls to us in our dreams, if we are in touch with the truth of our mutual belonging, our hearts naturally stir with care. We remember that the web of life is our home." ~Tara Brach, excerpted from Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha