“How to cope with the future? – What outdoor and adventure education have to offer in this uncertain world?”
This week almost all the 2nd year outdoor and adventure education students and Humak adventure education staff is attending the EOE Conference at youth centre Metsäkartano. The students have a big role in organising the whole conference and organising workshops and activities. The theme of the conference is “How to cope with the future? – What outdoor and adventure education have to offer in this uncertain world?”
In the opening keynote speech of the conference our senior lecturer Eeva Mäkelä talked about resilience as one of the key compentences of future outdoor adventure educators and emphasized the importance of topics such as self-reflection, resilience and emotional intelligence, in order to better support students for uncertain future.
The conference consists of keynote speechees, practical workshops and different types of oral presentations. Humak adventure education students are also organising refreshing morning activities every morning from 7am to 8am that conference participants can join to warm up for the day.
Students also organize other activities, for example box climbing, evening bonfire event and an educational canoeing workshop together with our outdoor and adventure education staff.
Thursday was the second Day of the conference and today’s keynote by Maarit Marttila and Mari Pienimäki provided a comprehensive framework on how adventuring in nature can support young people and the society in building a sustainable future. One of their conclusions was that supporting cognitive connectedness of young people to nature needs to be supported more and outdoor adventure education contains many elements that can help in making this happen. Even though young people have a lot of information about the climate change and the importance of nature, they start to become more meaninful for them by sharing good experiences in nature and through reflection on their thoughts.
Also some of the practical workshops are connected to this theme, for example in one of the workshop’s on Wednesday Iira Tiitta provided us solution-focused methods to address environmental emotions in personal and professional contexts.
The conference continues until Saturday with more outdoor experiences and interesting workshops & presentations – and of course networking, good conversations and laughter over dinner and at the bonfire. Metsäkartano Youth centre and Tiilikkajärvi national park provide a perfect setting for the conference!
More information about the conference: https://metsakartano.com/en/eoe-2023
More information about The European Institute for Outdoor Adventure Education and Experiential Learning (EOE): https://metsakartano.com/en/eoe-2023/about-eoe
Text and photos: Tero Lämsä.
2023-10-06 09:54:25