Extra-Academic Programs

Professional storyteller Gary Cordingley was at RCNUWC for his second visit. The Storytelling PBL encouraged participants to tell stories from their homelands, to investigate ways of telling and, ultimately, to perform the stories before an audience.

On the Friday evening Gary and five students told stories to a rapt audience in the auditorium, and there was a repeat session in the Høegh on the Saturday with pancakes and waffles! Stories from the borders between Scotland and England, as well as from Venezuela, Costa Rica, Colombia, Paraguay, and a new Swedish / Norwegian myth graced the evening. Roll on PBL 2010!!

Our project was to learn about the role of different organizations concerning human rights and the opportunities for youth to get involved in the issue.

We started with a meeting with the Norwegian Refugee Council where we discussed their role in Darfur, and the situation of the Sahrawi refugees, i.e. a specific example of human rights issues in a refugee situation.

On two days we had meetings with representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to learn about their work, International Humanitarian Law and the ICRC’s outreach to youth.

We then met with UNICEF concerning children’s need for protection, and UNICEF’s expectations for young people.

As well we managed to squeeze in a visit to two of the three campuses of the International High School of Geneva where we promoted the UWC movement and the issue of Western Sahara.

Finally, we met with a group from the Norwegian UN Delegation and discussed the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the role of the Human Rights Council.

After a very busy week we returned to Flekke and will continue the project with the creation of a website focusing on human rights issues and youth involvement.

After our experience in the forests of Eastern Norway, one thing is clear: moose hunting is more than just a simple shot. For five days, Rupert, Craig, and Jens Martin joined the Krogsrud Og Saugnes Jaktlag in their first leg of this hunting season. For these five days, we began in the forest at 7AM, getting our posts for the morning, and hiking out to our line. As the sun rose, we waited for that lucky shot, enjoying the peace and quiet of nature in the meantime. In our team of over 14 hunters, we managed 6 kills during the week, and we got a chance to try skinning and gutting, as well as one day at the shooting range. In all, it was gratifying to try something never done at RCN. A big thanks goes to the team and the Dahlum family for being very welcoming hosts.

We, a group of six students with Vidar Jensen, went on a five day PBL with the aim of reducing, as much as possible, the number of trout fish in the over populated Steiestøl Lake.

On the first day, we went around our project location site and in the evening we laid nine nets in different places in the lake.

From the following day our daily routine was to go out to the lake in the morning and collect the nets which we laid the last evening. This task was carried out by the two groups which we were divided in. During this time we learned how to lay the nets, how to collect and gather them from the lake and finally how to clean the nets and keep them in a proper way. Our total catch by the end of the PBL was 180, though we collected a separate data for each catch per day.

The temperature during these five days ranged from -1.7 to 5 degree Celsius and thus we got a chance to do fishing in a diversity of weathers ranging from cold and snowy to rainy and sunny. On Thursday 8^th October we went on for a four hour hike in the snow covered mountains and had an amazing time.

All in all the team’s cooperation, dedication and hard work was a key factor in making this project a `fun with learning’ one.