Explore
Explore your wild place, deepen your knowledge and understand it better. Enjoy a variety of activities with a sense of adventure and curiosity. Learn more about your wild place – how is it good for nature, how is it good for humans, what might threaten keeping it wild?
Consider what you can do to help protect or restore it. The Explore Challenge is about taking practical steps to learn about and understand your wild place; enjoy spending time there and deepen your connection to it.
Identify the species that exist there already and how they contribute to its ecosystem. Explore their positive and negative influences on your wild place. How has it changed over time; consider the history, geography, and ecology. Develop the skills and confidence to go out into wild places and be safe and respectful.
Here are some examples of activities to consider for the Explore challenge. This is not intended as a complete list, so feel free to come up with your own ideas.
- Go pond dipping or rock pooling
- Document / photograph changes throughout the day/night, season and/or year
- Experience all weathers – wind, rain, sun, snow. What do the clouds tell us? How is the weather changing (climate change)? Understand the water cycle.
- Forage, cook and eat wild food
- Take a hike, bike, boat – experience your wild place from different perspectives.
- Do some creative writing
- Identify the plants and animals that live in your wild place
- Art projects, such as bark rubbing, painting with mud
- Outdoor games – build a den, make mud pies
- Bushcraft activities
- Spend a night out under the stars / camping
- Learn about and practice the principles of Scottish Outdoor Access Code and Countryside Code (dependent on location of activity).
- Have a zero waste (leave no trace) picnic
- Learn how to map read
- Speak to grandparents or members of your community that experienced the landscape at a different point in time (to understand shifting baseline syndrome).
- Compare photos of your wild place from the past with the present day
- Learn about the challenges and issues your wild place faces – litter, tourist pressures, dirty camping, invasive species, imbalanced ecosystems
Share Challenge
Take pride in what you have achieved and inspire others to take action for wild places too
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Discover Challenge
Immerse yourself in your wild place, experience it through your senses and notice the things that make it special
Learn more