“Foxes, line up! Chipmunks, line up! Screamin’ Eagles, line up! Owls, line up! And welcome to Outdoor Education!” Watkins Mill High school students got to experience Outdoor Ed once again, but this time as the teachers.

Junior Ana Rodriguez had never been to Outdoor Ed before and was going in unaware of what to expect. “It was an awesome and fun experience,” Rodriguez said. “I didn’t go to Outdoor Ed in middle school so it was fun for me to see what is was like.” 

“It was very tiring,” senior Victoria Joya said. “The kids took so much energy from me every day and I didn’t even realize it until the last day.” 

One activity the middle schoolers played was “Predator and Prey.” Predator and Prey is a game where the middle schoolers imitate herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, a natural disaster, and a doctor. They need food and water in order to survive the game. Sophomore Adilia Sequeira’s favorite memory was “when [the middle schoolers] were playing Predator and Prey.”

While Outdoor Ed was overall a positive experience, there were also some bumps in the road. “The worst part about Outdoor Ed was trying to keep the kids under control,” Rodriguez said.

Uncontrollable aspects of Outdoor Ed did put a damper on the trip. “My worst memory was how cold the weather was and packing up the luggage,” sophomore Brittney Isaacoff said.

Outdoor Ed was not just a learning experience for the middle school students, but also the high school students volunteers. The volunteers learned a lot about themselves as well as some new information taught from Outdoor Ed.

One of the stations for the kids to earn SSL hours was creating habitats so they will be able to survive and not only middle schoolers gain new information.“I learned how to build homes for small animals in the woods,” Isaacoff said.  

After the WMHS students came back from their trip, the idea of becoming a teacher in the future arose.  “I [kind of] want to be a teacher now,” Rodriguez said.

Others realized that education is not in their future. “It made me realize I should stick to working with grown ups in the political field,” Joya said,