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Report on Outdoor Adventures! Your Relationship with Nature
Smart girls decide for themselves™.
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Two hundred twenty-three brave souls logged on to share their experiences with nature, their likes, their dislikes, and whether or not they could go a week without showering. (Keep reading to find out how many of you wouldn't mind stinking it up for seven days in a row!) Of these 223, 217 were girls, 2 were boys and 4 didn't specify. Our youngest adventurer was 8 and our oldest was over 22, but you can check out this graph to see how ages were spread out in between.
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| Age of Respondents |
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| It looks like most people who took this survey were between the ages of 11 and 13, and you can see where the graph peaks between 12 and 13. |
Some other fun facts about these survey takers:
More of you are the oldest child in your family (108) than the middle child (30), the youngest child (45) or an only child (26).
You come from all different racial/ethnic backgrounds: African (17 people), Asian (25 people), European (85 people), Latin American (12 people), Middle Eastern (3), Native American (6 people), Oceania/Pacific Islander (2 people), and multiracial (17 people).
You live in all kinds of different settings, but the majority of you live in a town or a suburban area.
You also live in lots of different countries. The graph below shows which countries our survey respondents come from.
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| What country do you live in? |
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| The majority of respondents live in the United States, but a significant number of respondents live in England, Canada and Australia as well. |
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The survey started out with some more basic questions before it set off into unchartered territory (if you've ever wanted to know how many SmartGirls would like to be trees, rocks or other outdoor species, you're in luck!). To set things up, we asked the four w's and the h: who, what, where, when and how.
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| How often do you spend time outdoors in a natural environment? |
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| You can see that all but four of you spend at least some time outside. |
Who are you spending all that time in the great outdoors with? Are you trekking about on your own? Hanging out in the backyard with friends and family? Taking your dog for a walk? Hitting the beach with your significant other? The possibiities are endless. Here's what you told us:
20 of you usually enjoy your time outside alone.
73 of you usually spend outdoor time with friends.
100 of you usually like to make the most of outside time with family.
7 of you usually enjoy the outdoors with your significant other.
18 of you usually pass the time outside with a pet.
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| What do you do when you spend time outdoors? |
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count | percent |
whatdo
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| Camp |
70 | 7.22 |
| Hike |
75 | 7.73 |
| Walk |
162 | 16.7 |
| Swim |
143 | 14.74 |
| Picnic |
99 | 10.21 |
| Water sports |
44 | 4.54 |
| Rockclimb |
31 | 3.2 |
| Play sports |
138 | 14.23 |
| Sit and relax |
191 | 19.69 |
| Garden |
2 | 0.21 |
| Other |
15 | 1.55 |
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| Sitting and relaxing steals the win for favorite outdoor activity, but there are plenty of you who like to be up and about when you're outside too. |
They call it the Great Outdoors for a reason. It's...well, it's pretty big. Gargantuan, if you will. And with all that space comes a lot of diversity in landscape and lots of options for where you can spend your time outside. We wanted to know where you enjoy spending most of your time outdoors. Here's what you had to say:
The beach was certainly the most popular, pulling in 76 votes and winning out as the place you enjoy spending most of your time outside.
Second up: in a lake! 33 of you told us this is where you like spending your days outdoors.
Next: Anywhere in a forest (20 of you).
Then came being in the ocean, pulling in at 15 people and losing to fellow body of water, lake.
Mountains and the ocean were almost a tie; 14 of you told us you enjoy spending most of your time outdoors in the mountains.
Last up, the desert. Only one of you enjoys spending most of your outdoor time there.
61 of you gave other responses.
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| What time of day do you like to spend time outdoors? |
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| A little more than half of you prefer to snag your time outside during the afternoon. |
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Everyone's relationship with nature is different - some people like to strap on their boots and hit the trail, and others prefer to slip on their sandals and head to the beach. Whichever your style, we thought we'd ask some questions about your experiences with the outdoors. First up, the ever popular activity camping!
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| How many times have you been camping? |
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| *Note: Here, the category titled five also includes anyone who has gone camping more than five times. |
Now there's an interesting graph! It looks like most people have either never gone camping or have been camping five times or more. What do you think factors into that outcome? Sounds like a SmartCenter project idea to me!
Next up, we wanted to investigate how close to nature you are when you're at home. We asked, "How far from your home do you have to travel to be in a natural environment?"
18 of you have to travel very far to be in a natural environment.
79 of you have to go somewhat far.
177 of you don't have to go far at all.
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What about school? Does your school ever sponsor outdoor trips to a natural environment? If so, what is a trip your school has had?
Yes, in 6th grade all the students go to an environmental camp for 4 days. It is in northern Minnesota and when the kids go up there, they learn about conservation, ecosystems, animals, outdoor skills like making fires and navigation, and appreciation for natural beauty.
Yes - there are trips for the whole class to attend and then lots of voluntary trips for smaller groups of people. As a whole class, we've been skiing twice, on a biking course and on a canoe/raft course.
NO! People in my community don't bother with nature - it's gone to THE DOGS!
YES! We went to Key Largo and went on a glass bottom boat. We also went to a zoo, and also Flamingo Garden.
We do a thing in England called Duke of Edinburgh Award which my school has got involved in. You have to complete two proper camping trips - cooking food, walking long distances, putting up tents-- it's a real challenge. Then you also have to complete community service, skills and physical exercise every week for a certain period of time (depending on whether the award is bronze, silver and gold).
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7th-12th grade has to go to 'Outweek', and one of the choices is this national park (7th grade has to go there). It was soooo much fun to go swimming and rockclimbing with all my friends. The food wasn't very good, so we convinced one of the counselors to sneak us into the gift shop, where we bought chips and chocolate. On the last night we canoed to a camping spot and slept outdoors (we had been sleeping in cabins so far). I can't wait to go next year!!!
My school has asked for sponsors for the "Habitat Club" at our school and they don't necessarily go many places - they just plant trees, help animals, and enjoy nature.
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While finding out how much time you spend outdoors and what you do during that time can give us a pretty good idea of how important you think it is to get fresh air, we thought why not cut right to the chase and ask them? So we did.
We asked: "How important do you feel spending time outdoors is?"
Your responses:
105 of you think it's very important to get in that time under the sun (or in the shade, whichever your preference).
102 of you think it's somewhat important to spend time outside.
10 of you don't think spending time outdoors is important at all.
Okay, so we know how you feel, but what about your neighbors, your teachers, the people you go to school with, the people who make the decisions in your community, etc.? What do they think? We asked you how much you agree with the following statement: "People in my community believe it is important to spend time with nature."
Here's what you had to say:
31 of you strongly agree with that statement.
111 of you agree.
60 of you disagree.
12 of you strongly disagree.
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It's one thing to be comfy sprawled out on a lawn chair in the backyard, but it's another to feel at home trekking through the woods or rafting down a roaring river. How many SmartGirls feel comfortable with the latter? Here's what we asked:
How well do you agree with this statement?
"I feel comfortable outdoors in a natural environment."
Here's how you responded:
73 of you strongly agreed.
113 of you agreed.
29 of you disagreed.
2 of you strongly disagreed.
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| What scares or worries you most about being outdoors? |
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count | percent |
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worries2
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| Getting lost |
30 | 13.82 |
| Dangerous animals |
52 | 23.96 |
| The dark |
17 | 7.83 |
| Bugs |
55 | 25.35 |
| Nothing - I'm fearless! |
34 | 15.67 |
| Strangers and what they might do |
12 | 5.53 |
| Other |
17 | 7.83 |
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| Dangerous animals and bugs definitely top the list of things that scare or worry you about being outside. |
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As you can see in the table above, some of you certainly aren't fond of bugs when you're outside. Since bugs seem to be just about everywhere when you're out of doors, we thought we'd ask about them directly: how much do they bug you when you're outside?
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| How much do bugs bug you outdoors? |
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| Seems like SmartGirls certainly don't like pesky bugs around. The majority of you are bugged by them when you're outside, pun certainly intended. :) |
Another prominent feature of the outdoors is the sun, and whether you're hanging out on the beach, hitting the field or just chilling in your yard, if you're in the sun it's important to keep your skin protected. What do SmartGirls use to protect themselves from the sun?
43 of you don't do anything to protect yourself. Youch!
158 of you wear sunscreen if you're in the sun.
60 of you don protective headwear...aka a hat.
81 of you stay in the shade.
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To truly test your relationship with nature, we offered up some situations and asked what you would do or what option you would choose. They range from situations that you might come across in the Great Outdoors to situations that you probably will never have to face unless you come across Cinderella's Fairy Godmother traipsing about the woods. Regardless of the question, you guys gave lots of responses. Check them out!
What if...you were going to spend one month outdoors. What would you do for food?
58 of you told us that you would bring a supply of ready-to-eat food.
68 of you would bring food to cook outdoors.
24 of you would learn or already know how to identify plants and animals that are safe to eat in natural environments.
64 of you would never spend one month outdoors.
What if...you decide to attend an outdoors camp in a natural environment this summer. When you arrive, you learn that the ultimate outdoor campers' challenge is to not shower for the whole week. Would you take the challenge?
Check out the graph below to see how you felt about this one!
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| Would you go a whole week without showering? |
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| We certainly have some brave (or smelly) souls in our midst. 81 of you would take the challenge and skip the showers. |
What if... you were going to spend the night outdoors. Where would you sleep?
29 of you would sleep under the stars.
78 of you would pitch a tent and sleep there.
55 of you would sleep in a cabin.
57 of you would head for the nearest hotel!
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| What if...you could spend one week in a natural environment. What activities would you like to do? |
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| Sitting and relaxing once more comes out on top! However, swimming and camping were close behind. |
What if...you could live outdoors as some sort of outdoor object. What would you choose to be?
The graph below shows how the answers panned out. It looks like animals, clouds and oceans were the most popular choices. Very few of you would want to be insects!
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| What outdoor object would you choose to be? |
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| Apparently, insects, rocks and plants don't exactly top your list of outdoor objects you'd want to be. |
What if...you are asked to plan an outdoors trip for you and your friends to a natural environment anywhere in the world. Where would you go? What would you do on your trip? What would you bring with you?
Oh wow. Anywhere in the world........This is a tough question....I would say I'd like to go to a South American Rain Forest. And on our trip we would take many, many photos and try to travel as deep into the forest as we could. Beforehand though, we would learn about all the edible plants and what to do in certain situations. Our food wouldn't last as long as we would stay there. We would bring food, super-warm sleeping bags, cameras, one change of clothes, a journal, and most importantly, water. (I would bring earplugs too though, to drown out the animal sounds at night.)
I would go to Australia, because it is a good place to camp, very populated with dirt roads, and cool animals, and nine of the ten most dangerous snakes are from Australia! Cool!
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I'd go to somewhere with a lake with nice woods or forest along its banks. I'd spend the time quietly, walking in the woods and sitting enjoying the river and the animals and flowers. I'd write in a journal every day and reflect on things in a beautiful place. I'd swim in the lake and lie reading and relaxing in the sun, and stay in a log cabin on the lake shore. Lovely.
I would go to Long Beach, California, go boogie bording, wake bording, water skiing, and sunbathing. I would take sunscreen, an umbrella, a beach blanket, swimming suit, and goggles.
I would organize a hike along the Appalachian Mt. Chain where we'd hike the whole thing starting in Maine and end around Georgia. We'd bring some food that was non-perishable, probably a lot of pre-made meals, tents, sleeping bags, and backpacks and basically live off of the land as much as we could.
We would go to a beautiful Asian area like Fiji and white water raft or canoe or whatever. We wouldn't bring anything!!!!
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I would go to this campsite that I always go to with my family, aunts and uncles, and my 30 cousins. We would swim in the lake, fix our old clubhouse, eat, sleep, explore (a lot), and build campfires. Everything!
If I was asked to plan an outdoor trip I would go to Turkey because it is nice and hot there and you meet a lot of friendly people. I would probably go rock climbing or walk everywhere and explore the country. If I went to Turkey I would probably bring with me my suncream and my hat and some sensible clothes and sensible shoes to walk in.
I would go to the Caribbean. Somewhere like the Bahamas would be perfect because we could lie on the beaches and swim with the dolphins. I would bring sunscreen, hats, swimsuits, a cool box, my cell phone, my purse, and I would definitely remember my friends. Hahahaha.
I would go to Africa, to the Serengeti, and go on a safari. I would go to a country called Tanzania, which is my favourite country. I would take loads of water, sun hats, sun cream, and loose clothing.
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Well, if money doesn't count, I would like to go to Iceland. I think I'd go with my dad or a bunch of friends (four or five). We would see all the sights, bathe in the spa and geysers, and - best of all - hire the special Iceland horses and go on a week-long ride. We would sleep either in tents or in the huts along the road. It would be wonderful. As for what I'd bring along - a warm sleeping bag is the most important. My backpack (75 litre) is another thing, then good hiking boots, warm clothes and money. I'd buy all necessary food there.
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Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts
with us!
Please remember that all web-based polls
are not scientific because the pollsters cannot randomly select the
respondents to participate in the surveys.
All our surveys are anonymous; check out our privacy
policy. All data copyright 1996-2000.
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