Searching for?

1 September 2010

Pionering Course

Hi guides (:

Last Saturday, a team of 6 guides took part in the pioneering course organised by our school's Scouts troop. We have decided to share our experience with you.

During the first part of the course, we attented a lecture on some basic but important pioneering skills conducted by the ventures. We were thought how to handle a pioneering project successfully as well as some basic lashing and structures of a pioneering project.

Following that, we went on to build a tower which we had designed a few days beforehand with the help of the rovers. We started off by tying the main component of our tower, the two yellow spar tripods. After that, the most challenging was the interlocking of the two spar tripod to make an hourglass shape as can be seen in the photos below. Despite that, with the help of the rovers, we managed to get the principle structure of the tower up. Thereafter, we added on other parts to our tower, including a platform and rope ladder, which we had much fun constructing.

After 5 hours, our tower was finally completed. Although there were many flaws and improvements that could have been made on the tower, we were all proud of the tower as it was our first time handling and leading a pioneering project (:

Reflections from the y2s who attended the course:

Through this Pioneering Course, I feel that we have really benefitted a lot and learnt many new skills normal 集合-s cannot teach us. Firstly, during the lecture, I learnt that triangular structures are more stable than other structures, therefore I will be able to apply this concept to structures tied using gadget poles in the future. Also I learnt how to hit Arthurs into the ground at the correct angle, so that the spars will not be given any chance to ‘fly’ and hit anyone.

From the Rovers, I learnt that sometimes, when we have suggestions or comments for improvements, we should not keep them to ourselves but voice them out so that we can all learn fro each other. If we do not raise our comments to the ones tying the lashings or doing other things, they may have to redo what they have spent much effort doing after realising their mistakes or realising there could have been a better way to do what they have done. Flexibility is also very vital and we should openly accept criticism or new ideas. When things go wrong, it does not matter if we change ideas to salvage the situation. This is similar to how we improvise things during集合-s.

I trust that all six fortunate Guides have learnt many new skills today and that those skills will aid them in their future endeavours. The Rovers should really be thanked for their patient and kind teachings and help given to the construction of our hourglass tower. They have also provided us Guides with filling lunch, cold drinks and even dinner! Today has indeed been a fruitful day and I do not regret taking part in this meaningful course.

Below are some photos:

Our tower design
In the lecture theatre

DHS scouts' competition piece

Swing by scouts
Our completed tower
The y3s feel that this has been a great exposure and experience for us, especially since it will come into use during future pioneering activities as well as ideas for our juniors' activities.

We have learnt about having situation awareness as pioneering requires much flexibility and observance to surroundings, to successfully create and build a structure. We had to think on the spot frequently and improvise on certain items, such as the platform, to build the tower. During the spand of building the structure, we also learnt many hard skills, such as using arthurs to stabilize our structure and building a good rope ladder.

The y3s are proud of the y2s as well, in being cooperative and ready to learn during the course of pioneering as this is in fact, a brand new activity to them. We have seen how things are possible if we believe in ourselves. Despite the structure being challenging and difficult to build, we managed it in the end. The y3s hope that all guides will have a similar mindset for hike, ATC and all guides activities to come. Impossible is nothing! (:

Lastly, we would all like to thank the following people:
Guiders and Scouters, for giving us the chance to take part in this course;
Rovers, Wei Xuan, Rui Yang and Hua Zhou for their guidance and suggestions before and during the course of pioneering;
Scouts QMs, Ming Quan and Thomas, for helping us with our logistics;
Scouts PLs, Yu Hao and Beng Haun, for their suggestions and help with the tower design

No comments: