Trips to remember

Note: I have arranged activities that is equivalent to the Blue Mountains trip with Dr. Wayne Cotton because I was sick during the Blue Mountains trip and sadly could not attend.
In this blog post I am going to draw upon three key meaningful photographs from my two fieldtrips that is equivalent in time to the Blue Mountains trip. These photographs serve as visual stimulus that I will reflect upon, from the three days/two nights sailing trip to Whitsundays (14.-16.11) and the Shipwreck Dive at SS Yongala (19/11) near the Great Barrier reef.  

The first two pictures are both from the second day of the sailing trip in the Whitsundays. We all woke up at six o’clock, had some breakfast and then went out snorkeling two times before we visited the stunning Whitehaven Beach. The first picture shows the beautiful Whitehaven beach which I will go further into detail on.  The second picture represents our learning of the environment in the area by showing some of the beautiful marine life in the Whitsundays. Before we reached the bay where the walking track to Whitehaven Beach starts, we had a briefing with our guide about the special environment around this island. We talked about how humans have impacted the environment and   that the high numbers of species living in the area are struggling. Our guide told us that much of this human influence has happened after James Cook entered the area even though Aboriginal people had been living here for thousands of years. The Ngaro Aboriginal people held the Whitsundays as their home for at least 9000 years, but after the Europeans had settled most of the Aboriginal people were forced to move (Queensland Government, 2018). Learning about this harsh history while you are sailing in these beautiful surroundings made me both sad and a little ashamed. I don’t think I would have felt the same way learning this in a classroom which is a good example of how powerful experiential learning can be. 

Once we got to the Whitehaven beach I was amazed of how white the sand was in contrast to the clear blue water. One remarkable thing about the Whitehaven beach is the color of the sand which our guide told us was because of the high percentage of the mineral silica. According to Queensland Government (2018), the Whitehaven Beach is different from most beaches in the Whitsundays Island because the sand on most beaches contains corals and shells. This makes the Whitehaven Beach one of a kind and it is the most beautiful beach I have ever seen.

After the second day we had a debrief of what we had done while looking at the map and asking questions to the guide. While doing this I was thinking about how powerful it is to learn new things while being in the outdoors – it gets you to connect the knowledge in new ways and as I psychology student I also know that we tie our knowledge to “cues” in the environment. These “cues” can later serve as triggers to make us remember easier. Compared to a classroom setting, learning in the outdoors provides a larger number of possible cues and can in this was potentially enhance learning.

The Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) describes learning as “the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Knowledge results from the combination of grasping and transforming experience” (Kolb, 1984, p. 41, as cited in Kolb, Boyatzis & Mainemelis, 1999). To learn, we have to actively use our experience and transform it into something meaningful. In my opinion, having a debrief like the one we did on the Whitsundays sailing trip can be really helpful for transforming the experience and therefor making the learning more efficient. One can ask questions, reflect and discuss relevant issues regarding the experience.

On the second field trip, the shipwreck dive at SS Yongala, we also had a debrief after the two dives we did. The ship SS Yongala was headed from Mackay to Townsville in 1911 but hit a cyclone which was seen as the most plausible reason why the ship sank (Queensland Government). 122 people lost their life on this journey and even though they did extensive searches for the ship, it was not found before 1958.
It was with great respect that we started the descending to 28 meters below sea level. The Yongala shipwreck has become a great habitat for a diverse marine life and the underwater life was spectacular. One of the first things we saw when we were down at 25 meters is a giant sea turtle at approximately 2 meters in length. It was a breathtaking view and it was so close that we could almost touch it. Diving at this depth together with others is a fantastic yet strange experience and it is so important that you trust the persons you are diving with, especially your “buddy”. We always dive in pairs, helping each other if something is wrong or simply just enjoying the marine life together. Since it is not possible to interact in other ways than just giving each other signs under water it is highly important that we talk about the experience when we get out of the water. This way of reflecting on the experience helps improve the learning, also when it comes to improving our diving skills. If we look at Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory, the way we reflect upon our experiences helps create new concepts that affects how we cope with new experiences (Kolb et. al, 1999). In this manner, reflecting upon the two dives can help me improve my diving skills and even make me remember the experiences in a better way. 

 
As a future psychologist, it is important that I know to which extent the environment around us impacts us in the way we feel, think and act. I find this really interesting and it has a lot of implications to my field of work. It has been rewarding to see how much more I remember when I am in the outdoors compared to when I am in the classroom and I believe that outdoor education is a great way to foster both mental and psychical health. 

- Iphigenia Hellen

Reference list

            Queensland Government. (2018). Whitsunday national park island, Nature, culture and history. Retrieved from: 

https://www.npsr.qld.gov.au/parks/parks-whitsundays/culture.html

Kolb, A., D., Boyatzis, E., R., Mainemelis, C. (1999). Experiential Learning Theory: Previous Research and New Directions. Perspectives on cogitive, learning and thinking styles. 

            Queensland Government. Dive into history. Department of Environment and Heritage Protection. Retrieved from: 

https://www.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0024/67362/dive-qld-shipwreck-yongala.pdf