Updating an Old Lesson: Survival Challenge

My first unit of the year is on survival.  It’s an interesting topic and kids really like it.  Years ago I was fortunate enough to be apart of a workshop given by Harry Silver of Silver, Strong and Associates.  It was a very hands on workshop in which time was alloted to create a unit.  His resource bag was a lot like  a Mary Poppins’ bag, it just kept  giving.  One of the books he brought along was on survival, and that is where this challenge came from.

In the past I have always just presentented the scenario and handed out a worksheet.  This year I turned it into a blog survivalunit. With it I added an xtranormal beginning and a twist, a blackberry with limited battery power.

The scenario is similar to the one Brain Robeson has in the novel Hatchet by Gary Paulsen.

The purpose of the twist, the Blackberry, is that it is real world, most people would have a some sort of cellular device with them.  One of my goals, in addition to the survival theme, is how to use the internet as a tool.  I gave them some websites as examples, some useful some not.

I did produce a worksheet to accompany the challenge, but I also want them to use the blog to make comments on what sites they would use, why they would use it, what information were they looking for  and the answers they found.

I kick it off today.