Earning Criteria

• Spend 10 days/nights camping in the backcountry with the Girls* on Rock expedition team. Work with expeditions leaders to orient to campsite and set up camp. Be responsible for themselves in the backcountry. Be a team player by performing daily tasks around camp such as filtering water and cleaning dishes. Demonstrate general backcountry awareness of weather and safety.
• Demonstrate self-leadership in the backcountry. Serve the mission and goals of the group. Be as concerned for others as you are for yourself. Treat everyone with dignity and respect. Support leadership and growth in everyone. Respect the cultures you come into contact with. Be kind and openhearted. Do your share of camp tasks and stay organized. Help others, but don’t routinely do their work. Model integrity by being honest and accountable. Say yes and deliver or say no clearly if you cannot.
• Design and implement an experiment in a wilderness environment in a small group. Identify patterns or phenomena that emerge in mountain environments. Develop a hypothesis about why they may exist. Design a process to collect the data. Implement the process to collect the data needed to test the hypothesis. Record systematic observations of natural phenomena in a science field notebook. Analyze and synthesize observations.
• Present research findings. Include: 1) Introduction - explains research, its purpose and why the research is important/needed. 2) Methods - explain how research was done, including where data was obtained and the steps to collect data. 3) Results - display results in meaningful graphics, table or illustrations. 4) Discussion/Conclusion - puts results into a comprehensible context. The discussion addresses: Do the results answer the questions that were asked in the introduction?
• Learners will individually complete a three-part self-assessment that includes a learning artifact that demonstrates their learning.