Ren Pillopow's classroom knows virtually no borders.
There are no desks or video monitors along the Pidherny trail system that forms the backdrop of Kelly Road secondary school and no cell phone service exists on the shores of a remote high-alpine lake where Pillopow teaches teenagers skills they need to survive nature's elements.
"The students that choose outdoor education as an elective love it -- it's very hands-on and practical-based and they do it because the love the outdoors and the physicality of it, " said Pillopow. "This crew is really used to the program and they realize the benefits of it. I'm really trying to get them physical out there so they touch and feel nature."
About 60 Kelly Road students are taking outdoor education. There would be more, but there aren't enough seats to meet the demand. Pillopow teaches a semestered course for Grade 8/9 students during regular school hours and this year added a 120-hour after-school and weekends course for Grade 11/12 students that runs the duration of the school year.
Pillopow outsources groups like OVERhang (Outdoor Vertical Education and Recreation), the Prince George Cycling Club and the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club for their expertise and equipment. She's also lined up some of UNBC's outdoor recreation and tourism students to facilitate activities for her students.
In the fall, Pillopow's students explored the Mount Pope area near Fort St. James on an overnight rope climbing/mountain bike trip. A winter camping trip to 8 Mile cabin in Sugarbowl/Grizzly Den provincial park east of Prince George will involve a 10-kilometre backpacking hike each way on cross-country skis. They'll prepare for that with an overnight winter training trip to Wilkins Park in Miworth, using snowshoes and skis to get to the park from the Miworth community centre.
They're also planning a downhill ski/snowboard trip in February to Marmot Basin at Jasper, where they will put their navigational skills to the test, finding items hidden in caches on the ski hill. They'll also complete a three-hour avalanche rescue course. In spring, they'll canoe the western arm of the Bowron lakes.
"You get to go on trips you wouldn't get to go on normally and experience new sports," said Grade 12 student Leland Wright. "I've always wanted to do rock climbing but never had that opportunity until then. It's teaching me techniques about what to do outdoors that I wouldn't learn at home.
"Whenever we go on a trip we do our own cooking so you have to have a meal plan and figure out what we're going to eat, how much it's going to weigh and how to cook it."
Hired to teach physical education at Heather Park middle school when it opened in 2001, Pillopow proposed the outdoor-ed program as a means to alleviate the crush of 800 students needing a indoor gymnasium in the winter months for their physical activities. Pillopow started out teaching an eight-week exploratory course to all Heather Park students in Grades 6-8.
For her UNBC masters thesis, she developed an outdoor education curriculum for inner-city students in 2004, which won the approval of the school board and has since been implemented at Prince George secondary school. Pillipow's goal is to have her program available to all schools for students of all grades.
"The Grade 8 program is where I would start that type of curriculum because they're just old enough that they can can cope if they do get lost, stranded or injured; they're big enough to manage equipment; and mature enough to understand the consequences of their actions," she said.
PGSS (Grade 12 students and Cedars Christian (Grade 10) are the only other schools in the city that offer outdoor education. The program at Heather Park became quite popular and was supported by the school's parent advisory committee, which raised money to pay for mountain bikes and cross-country skis. Once Heather Park became an elementary school in 2010, Pillopow moved with the outdoor education equipment to Kelly Road. Parents there have been equally supportive, buying winter tents and GPS navigating units.
Before she came to Prince George, Pillopow worked as a teacher for the Australian department of sport and recreation at its winter academy camps in the Snowy Mountains.
"I came here to ski and to bike, my two big passions, and I love the backcountry," said Pillopow.
Grade 12 student Mathew Knight credited Pillopow's course for helping him and a hypothermic hunter survive a cold snowy night in the woods northeast of Chetwynd earlier this fall when they became separated from the rest of their hunting party. Knight's experience generated a groundswell of positive feedback from parents and students and reinforced their reasons for selecting outdoor-ed as an option.
Pillopow says students who feel threatened by phys-ed class and are reluctant to take part in the physical challenges of competing in team sports often excel in outdoor-ed, where their success depends more on knowledge, experience and intuition than physical ability and athleticism.
