Utilizing Campus Resources

Evidence: Include a copy of the scavenger hunt guide sheet and cheat sheet that I created. Also include copies/pictures of the assortment of physical objects that the students were required to visit. 

The following is an explanation of the activity I did with my class to fulfill the "Utilizing Campus Resources" section of my Learning Contract. I had students take a little more than half of the class time to try and complete a small scavenger hunt that I prepared on various important resources around campus. To add a little incentive and friendly competition, I had a bag of candy up for the grand prize for the winning group (although everyone got some candy for completing the activity).

Once everyone split into their respective teams (3 people per team) I handed out the scavenger hunt list and let them go. About 20 minutes later teams started coming in drenched in sweat looking like they just ran a race. I remember one student immediately came in and remarked how "the campus must have been built for Olympic training or something." It seems my students are starting to "love" the campus hill already.

After the teams returned, everyone got candy and the points were tallied. It was very close with one exception: one team got every point they could in addition to finishing second in time. They definitely earned the grand prize, especially for the great picture of them with the ram (pictured to the right: they even found friends, aka random strangers, to join in on the fun!). I then ran a quick overview of what they just accomplished and had had a quick discussion to sum everything up.

 I was really happy that the activity went so well and my students seemed to enjoy it so much. I feel that having a good sense of where everything is on campus is very important, especially for students to be able to independently get the help they might need. It is very surprising how many students are easily ashamed when it comes to asking for help: ranging anywhere from needing someone to talk to at the counseling center to needing a tutor after not doing well on an important test. 

From my experiences as an RA, one of the hardest aspects of my job is to make your residents feel comfortable enough around you to be able to ask for help. With this activity I wanted to both increase the student's sense of "being" on campus in addition to feeling more comfortable asking me questions if they needed help. After this week, I definitely saw an increase in questions asked to me, which indicated to me that I successfully achieved my goal!