Cws EDITOR NATASHA CHANG THE DAILY VOICE, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1,2015 3 UMLLIe cL Full LY) 5 Loeb t lia UV ANNA DIMOFF photo Left, Centre: Different geocache treasure boxes hidden around Vancouver. Right: The Main Street Poodle’s got a poop geocache. Scavenger hunt for poop-loot Smelly, mushy droppings are the perfect camoflauge for goodies By ANNA DIMOFF n addition to the poodle on Main Street is causing a stink among those who spotted the carefully placed turd around the high- perched pooch. It was Stu Garret’s idea to use the piece of public art as a location to hide a geocaching container, which he clev- erly camouflaged as a pile of dog poop. Geocaching is an outdoor activity where containers are hidden through- out the city, suburbs and great out- doors, for others to find using GPS co- ordinates. It’s a hobby for Kevin MacDonald, who started caching in 2011. He hides caches and finds them as well. “It’s about bringing people to inter- Research examines the positives and negatives in the safety of children’s outdoor jungle gyms BY JULIA WICKHAM re children’s playgrounds “too Ae A new study has come out investigating children’s outdoor playground’s level of safety. The University of British Columbia came out with the study, which highlights the pros and cons of safety on children’s outdoor play areas. Susan Herrington, a UBC professor of Architecture and Landscape Archi- tecture, and Mariana Brussoni, an injury prevention researcher at UBC’s school of Population and Public Health, conducted the research. esting places. The poodle certainly was an interesting po- litical topic, and : was topic of the " day for quite some time,” MacDonald aaa oF said. “I also think |\ f U the poodle is some- thing a lot of peo- \ ple miss when they drive by cause you KEVIN MACDONALD just don’t look way hopouuet up there for a dog.” Jamie Meads, who discovered his passion for caching after a neighbour introduced him to the activity, agrees that a good hiding spot brings people to interesting and sometimes hidden places around a city. “Earth caches, which are one of my ANNA DIMOFF photo favourites, are things that are done in conjunction with the Geological Society of America and they’re sup- posed to take you to interesting geo- logical formations and give you a little science lesson,” Meads said, who usu- ally hunts them down with his kids. “Quite often you'll learn something new about your city. ‘Cause either the cache page has information about where you are or it takes you to a beau- tiful spot that you didn’t know about,” MacDonald said, adding that it’s a great tourist activity to learn about where you are. “Stu is really good at that historical slash political reference and then adding a little bit of fun to it as well,” MacDonald said. “It’s really about making your own adventure.” I ee BS Eo q KATIE CUBITT photo FACTS geocache 1 Quirky outdoor treasure hunt that's a worldwide phenomenon 2 Worldwide treasure hunters use their phones/GPS to track down items 3 Geocache is typi- cally a waterproof container with a logbook inside Source: Bored in Vancouver Herrington said she decided to take a look into the safety aspects of playgrounds because she noticed that “children were looking a little bored” while playing. She said that according to a survey conducted online, 69 per cent of participants believe that play areas are too safe and lack a sense of challenge for children. Heather van Mil, founder of Word of Mom Marketing and a mother of two, agrees that some outdoor play spaces are too safe. Parents should also give their children more freedom while playing outside, she added. “Giving children room to play more freely is a great start,” Mil said. “Letting them take more risks and challenge themselves is rewarding for both of you.” Herrington said that the ideal playground would offer alternatives from the usual playground structures to peak the interests of children. “Playgrounds need environments like plants and grass,” she said. “Children notice when plants grow.” Van Mil said that the ideal playground “uses a lot of natural elements, and has lots of open spaces without any equipment at all.” She said that she and her children love St. Andrews Park in North Vancouver, and Ambleside Park in West Vancouver. “My kids go crazy without some outdoor time everyday,” she said. “It’s not uncommon for them to go out multiple times a day.” Herrington also said children need equipment that they can manipulate as well as unstructured playtime to run around, yell and make friends. JULIA WICKHAM photo Getting kids out the door, and giving them more challenging playful obstacles, might not be a bad idea, according to a recent study. Children are too coddled by play areas 66 Letting them take more risks and challenge themselves is reward- ing for both of you HEATHER VAN MIL FOUNDER OF WORD OF MOM MARKETING Private no better than public school Kids’ socioeconomic back- ground determines suc- cess, shows new study By SARA RABEY more of an indicator of their suc- cess than going to a private school, according to a recent report by Statistics Canada. The report showed 14 per cent more students graduated from university programs who came from private high schools in comparison to public. It also went on to show that students who at- tend private high schools are more likely to have socioeconomic character- istics that are associated with academic success. Patti Bacchus, trustee for the Van- couver board of education, said the study results were not surprising from the research she has seen in the past. “What we saw was a strong correla- tion between a student’s socioeconomic status, that is their family income, and the education of i their parents is i probably one of the strongest projec- tors of how likely they are to be suc- cessful in school, regardless of whether they went to a private school Ae: personal background is or a public school,” Bacchus said. Graham _ Bald- win, president and CEO of The West- side School, wrote in an email that the PATTI BACCHUS Vancouver school board trustee 66 recent statistics The edu- are inaccurate. . “The OECD [Or- cation ganisation for Eco- of their nomic Co-opera- . tion and parents is Development] has recently published P robably a report about in- One of the ternational student strongest outcomes on PISA ° tests and has clear PYFOJ ects of evidence that the Row likely socio-economic fac- tor in academic they are success is greatly to be suc- distorted, for ex- . ample. I wonder, cessfi ul in too, in which cate- sehool gory they placed students in the private (ie selective) parts of public schools, or students with financial aid in private schools,” Baldwin wrote. Baldwin said he feels that teaching in the public schools is inconsistent and that private schools generally have a clear purpose to which parents sub- scribe. However, with all the positives pri- vate schools present, Baldwin wrote the negatives are that private schools are expensive, socially divisive and re- move the powerful voices that advocate for the public schools. Deani A. Neven Van Pelt, director of the Barbara Mitchell Centre for Im- provement in Education at the Fraser Institute, said it does point to the differ- ent advantages people have because of economic status, but the study misses a lot of the fine variation because it lumps all private schools in Canada into one group. She also said she be- lieves it misses the sectarian and non- sectarian nature of schools and parents have a variety of reasons why they choose those schools. “T think if we just say it’s family ad- vantage we are misrepresenting the report, but I think where the paper tried to probe what the school advan- tage might be, it fell short,” she said.