Questing

For the past day and a half we have been "Questing". I, like the rest of my colleagues and some of you have never heard of it before let alone be one one. So let me try to describe it in my own terms.
Questing is very similar to a treasure hunt but is the next level. Questing is a fun way of integrating various disciplines to learn about something, whether it be ecological, historical, cultural or even spiritual.
Yesterday we did two quests, one of which was created by 6th graders and is called Goose River Quest. It was interesting how they wrote the quest using simple language directing the hiker to see different aspects of the Goose River watershed. We tried to follow the directions to the best of our abilities and in the end found the "Treasure" just as they described. Along the way we learnt a little but of history, geology and ecology. It was fun, interesting and educational.

Today we learnt a bit of how to develop quests from the experts as we joined a session for teachers that are interested in developing quests with their students. We cant say we are ready to develop quests at this stage, but we sure got lots of resource materials that can help us if we decided to develop one.

Towards the end of today's session we all took a cruise tour to "Egg Rock Island" to see the famous Puffin. Puffins are indeed a beautiful bird, so unique in its colors, shape and of course that beak.

I think that in more than one ways we can develop quests in Belize that can engage our community in teaching and learning about the history and culture of the various ethnic groups. We can also develop quests focusing on watershed education, the importance of ecosystems etc. Maybe I will try to develop one at TIDE when I get back home.
Thanks to the great people there at QLF for the opportunity to learn new things.