First Senior field trip a success

By Stefanie Sadocha

Rope swings and balance beams were only a few of the activities the OBHS Seniors participated in on October 14th. The Class of 2021 took a field trip to the Nassau BOCES Brookville Outdoor and Environmental Campus, where they engaged in numerous team building activities while enjoying a day in nature. ​

The seniors started their day off as a large group, participating in ice-breaking activities like the game Categories. The students were then broken up into small groups with whom they would spend the rest of their day. Each small group was headed by a naturalist who led and supervised each group activity. The naturalists provided real life scenarios to maximize communication and teamwork within each group. ​

One naturalist, Bill, related many of the activities back to space. Imagining that their spaceship had almost run out of oxygen, the students had to swing across on a rope between platforms in order to reset the oxygen tanks. 

“I was nervous to travel on the rope at first because I have never done something like this before. However, after working with my group, I learned that it is easy when others are encouraging you to successfully complete the task,” Brianna Barefoot shared.

Many groups also participated in a spider web challenge, which required each member of the group to crawl through the ‘spider web’ without knocking the spider off, while students had their eyes closed. This challenge required extensive communication between members so that the students could guide each other to crawling through the web successfully. 

The Class of 2021 took a field trip to the same campus when they were in middle school. Many seniors worried that the trip would be repetitive since they had been there in the past, but the day was exciting for all. 

 “I did not know what to expect going into the trip. I was skeptical that I would learn something new, but I really did learn new perspectives in regard to communication and team work this time around. Now that we are older, we see things differently than we did as young middle schoolers, and I really did have a great day,” Lauren Swezey said.
 
Assistant Principal Leach played a role in planning the trip. Wanting to provide the senior class an opportunity to be together as a grade for the first time since March, Mr. Leach brainstormed different ways to make it possible. 

“The administrative team had been discussing various events and activities that we could do with the senior class that would allow everyone to be together and engage in a safe, fun and meaningful way,” shared Mr. Leach. “We feel the trip itself was amazing, not because of the activities, but because of our students. We could not be more proud of the way our senior class engaged during the trip and worked together throughout the day.”
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The 2020-21 school year has been full of new experiences for everybody, especially for the Class of 2021. Hoping to make the best out of their final year as OBHS students, seniors have maintained old traditions in a socially distant manner, but also created new ones.