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A rock-climbing wall, make-your-own survival bracelet, and an appearance by Game Truck, a mobile audiovisual and video-game studio will be among the exhibits at SurvivalFest 2012, a one-day program for seventh-graders on Thursday, April 12, at Hillview Middle School in Menlo Park.
SurvivalFest is new this year, replacing the seventh-grade Renaissance Faire day, which has been retired after 20 years.
During SurvivalFest, students will compete in teams to make shelters, apply simple navigation techniques, prepare for hot and cold natural environments, practice emergency first aid, and learn other survival skills.
“This will be a unique experience that students of all interests and abilities won’t soon forget,” says Kim Staff, Hillview seventh-grade social studies teacher.
Survival Fest? What in the world does that have to do with the 7th grade California State Standards? Or are they training students to survive 8th grade at Hillview which certainly will require survival skills and any other help they can get.
I think it’s great that teachers at Hillview enrich and enhance their curriculum with meaningful activities for their students that provide memorable experiences that kids will remember for years to come. And, to the person who had a question about curriculum connections…they must not know the whole truth before making a comment because survival is a major theme of the core literature kids are reading this year…not only survival of the fittest but things like man vs. nature, man vs. society, man vs. self, man vs. man, etc. So as an outsider’s perspective…I find it refreshing that teachers go above and beyond and not just stick to teaching the test…because after all…isn’t that what teaching is all about: to inspire and spark interest. I mean who says learning can’t be fun. And come on…if I were a kid…I would gobble all this up like candy!!!! And maybe…this preparation would really train kids for the formidable 8th grade year…since high school, I hear, is a piece of cake!!!!
Survival reflects the new principal’s ongoing effort to replace beloved traditions that generations of HV students have enjoyed with new “traditions” that he can point to as his personal achievement.
In a few years, no one will remember, but it’s sad for the current crop of students who were hoping to participate in the same events that their older siblings raved about.
Sugar Coated Dreams, it is wonderful to look on the positive side but give me a break. An entire day of kids gaming, playing on a rock climbing wall and making bracelets is a big organized playdate, not curriculum enrichment. They’ll remember a trip to Raging Waters as well, but classifying that as a physics lesson is a stretch, to say the least. Surely the Hillview teachers are capable of deeper experiential learning.
Well at least Superintendent Ghysels didn’t show up with his guitar and start hogging the mic and singing.