Alternative Environment Physical Education

Overview

Course description

This practical course, designed for educators, focuses on the planning and implementation of a variety of alternative environment land and aquatic activities appropriate for the K-12 BC Physical and Health Education curriculum. Content areas include risk assessment and management, organization and planning, experiential learning, environmental ethics, and pedagogical strategies for outdoor physical education environments. Participation in land and aquatic activities is a course requirement. Field experiences take place at various outdoor locations throughout the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. There is an overnight component to this course. This course is open to students of all physical abilities.

Course content

Outdoor and alternative environment settings
- Aquatic and land-based settings (natural, park, urban)
- Seasonal considerations
- School-based alternatives (indoor, outdoor)
Experiential learning
- Principles
- Application
- Theory
- Student-centred approaches
- Cooperative learning
Social emotional learning
- Social and emotional development opportunities in outdoor settings
Risk Management
- Risk management process
- Standard of care
- Quality and quantity of supervision
- Risk transfer
Lesson and unit planning for outdoor and alternative environment settings
- Safety considerations
- Transportation planning
- Learning outcomes
- Equipment needs
- Budgeting
Assessment strategies
- Authentic assessment
Environmental Awareness
- Environmental care ethics
- Environmental awareness through an Indigenous lens
Practical topic selection will depend on instructor experience, student experience, and available resources. The following is a partial list of possible alternative environment activities in which students will participate as both leaders and students to implement the knowledge and skills of effective outdoor education in a safe and educative context.
- Hiking
- Backpacking
- Rock climbing
- Parkour
- Camping
- Orienteering
- Cycling
- High/low ropes courses
- Caving
- Kayaking
- Canoeing
- Sailing
- Snorkeling
- Paddleboarding
- Water games

Learning activities

In this course, students engage in a variety of learning activities such as experiential learning, field trips, practical applications, inquiry-based learning, place-based learning, field observation, and peer-led teaching.

Means of assessment

Assessment will be in accordance with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy. The instructor will present a written course outline with specific evaluation criteria at the beginning of the semester. Evaluation will be based on the following:

Participation 0-20%

Curriculum Connection Lesson 0-30%

Risk Management Quiz 0-20%

Reflection 0-30%

Outdoor Activity Proposal 10-40%

Total 100%

This is a letter-graded course.

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

Identify risk management and safety considerations while planning an outdoor activity;
Align outdoor activity learning outcomes with BC Ministry of Education core curriculum competencies;
Develop formative processes that encourage students to reflect on themselves as learners;
Match student levels of ability (affective, psycho-motor, cognitive) to outdoor activities;
Develop assessment and evaluation strategies for an alternative environment activity within an elementary or secondary school context;
Identify potential for integrating curricula (examples: math, science, arts, health, nutrition, etc.);
Design an activity that integrates experiential learning theory and pedagogy;
Identify the overlaps between Indigenous philosophy and pedagogy with outdoor experiential education methods and philosophy;
Utilize the “ethics of care” approach to explore our interdependence while demonstrating low environmental impact strategies.

Textbook materials

Consult the Douglas College Bookstore for the latest required textbooks and materials.

Requisites

Prerequisites

Enrolment in the Graduate Diploma in Physical and Health Education.

Corequisites

None

Equivalencies

None

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

January 2027 (Current)

May 2018

September 2006

2005

Course Transfers to Other Institutions

Below are current transfer agreements from Douglas College to other institutions for the current course guidelines only. For a full list of transfer details and archived courses, please see the BC Transfer Guide.

Institution	Transfer details for SPSC 5396
There are no applicable transfer credits for this course.