Recently our Year 7 students attended an Adventure Alternatives Camp. The camp’s main focus was to give students an experience of packing a hiking bag, hiking for a couple of hours and then camping in tents in the wilderness.

In subsequent years, they will be hiking further, camping longer and carrying more, though a particularly special part of the Year 7 experience is that students learn to make a campfire and then cook a meal outdoors.

Each year we devote two sessions to talking about and answering the inevitable myriad of questions about camp. Can we bring a fishing rod? Are there flushing toilets? Are there drop bears? Surprisingly, one of the most common questions asked is, ‘can we bring marshmallows?’

While this seems rather inconsequential, it is actually quite important to kids, as it is a common and comforting stereotype about sitting around campfires.

But is it also a frustrating question, because it is asked so many times!

Our first camp preparation session usually involves talking about the activities, sleeping arrangements, food served for breakfast, lunch and dinner, free time and when it’s ‘lights out’. But ‘can we bring marshmallows’ was asked very early on. And then it’s asked ten minutes later. And then again.

Then, by the end of the session, after what the teachers hope are all the important questions answered, we ask if there are any other questions, and a student puts up their hand and asks, ‘can we bring marshmallows?’ At this point, thankfully, there are some students who reply that we’ve already said ‘yes’ many, many times.

The second session runs in a very similar fashion, though emphasising the camping out experience. Frustratingly, it often ends again with a student asking, ‘can we bring marshmallows?’

It’s something I call the Marshmallow Problem.

I call it the Marshmallow Problem because it makes me wonder, if something that is so obviously important to students as bringing marshmallows to cook around a campfire is so quickly forgotten, or worse, falls on deaf ears, despite us saying over (and over) again that they can, what hope do we have for Middle Years students to listen when we talk about Math, History, French, or what homework they need to complete? The easy answer is, not much! The harder answer is we’re actually onto it.

In Year 7, we deliberately aspire to give students a compelling reason to learn by implementing an authentic curriculum.

We start with what the Australian Government says we need to teach students and ask ourselves, if students attain the knowledge and skills we are required to teach them, what would they be able to achieve in the real world as a result?

Who would’ve thought that learning could be actually connected to the real world, right?

Once we have a connection, we put Year 7 students in teams and help them to get to know each other, including their strengths and weaknesses. We then present to the team what they are asked to become and what they are tasked to achieve, and then ask them what knowledge and skills they will need to learn if they are going to be able to achieve this. Amazingly, with a little coaxing, they are able to tell us exactly what we need to teach them to be able to do this, helping them feel like the drivers of the learning experience.

From becoming an influencer on Instagram about conserving our natural habitats, to a charity firm that solves water access problems in developing countries, the aim is to give students a say in a real-world team objective that will get them collaborating and give them a reason to learn that goes far beyond ‘because it’s on the exam’.

And, maybe, just maybe, they’ll move far beyond the ‘Marshmallow’ Problem.

Larry Mckeown, Secondary Teacher + Year 7 Coordinator