Selu Conservancy trip for team building
ESHE 350- Dr. Pazmino
October 8, 2003
Activities included:
Mohawk Walk
Mountain Tops [Photos 3,
5 and 6]
Rock N Roll
Lava River [Photos 13 and
18]
Trip to lookout [Photos 19
and 21]
End of Selu experience [Photo 23]
Commentary from the student:
Participating
in the team building exercises with the class forced me to step outside of my
comfort zone and interact with others whom I would not socialize with outside
of class. We did have a few problems trying to strategize and we also made
some of the simple tasks hard. I think the obstacles were very practical and
could reflect real life situations. It enabled you to see how important
communication, compromise, and listening are to a team.
I really enjoyed our trip to Selu and particularly the ropes course. I think that it helped illustrate the types of bonding we discussed in class that can be developed by a group. Even though we are not an actual team, it made us feel like we were for those few hours. We felt this because we had to work together and so hard to accomplish the same goals. Also, we felt a sense of teamwork in the fact that we had to depend on each other. We depended on each other, and cheered each other on, but we did not chastise each other for mistakes that were made. We had to work together to form strategies for the specific goal that we were about to accomplish and figure out a way to make it work. I think that the experience brought us closer together as a class and, in a sense, as a team.
The actual activities that we did were challenging, but a lot of fun. I, as well as others, didn’t expect the activities to be a challenge. I thought that since it was the "low ropes course" it would consist of simple games with little or no strategy involved. I was proven wrong at the first activity. I didn’t think that I would be able to balance all the way across a wire, even though it was only about a foot off the ground and I had the support of my classmates holding on next to me. My pessimism grew even more when I was told that I would have to manage my way across the final rope on my own. However, when it came time I figured out that the task wasn’t impossible and I completed it successfully with the cheers and spotting from the people nearby.
I think that the ropes program is a great way to build trust and unity within a group. I can’t wait to tackle the high ropes.
I felt that the trip to Selu was a great idea and that the students were able to translate what we did there into what we are doing in the classroom. You could really see who stood up as leaders and who were the followers. Communication was another thing that was stressed and we were really able to get a team feeling. I really got a kick out of the day and have never really had an opportunity to do something like that in any of my other classes before. We developed a real sense of cooperation among us.
