Camp Dare (ATOM Study Guide)

Camp Dare is a four-part documentary series suitable for secondary students about eight city boys. The boys take on a challenge and are shaken out of their urban comfort zone and dropped into the middle of nowhere in the Cockburn Ranges in the remote northwest corner of Australia – One of the most beautiful, desolate and dangerous parts of the Australian continent. Camp Dare was co-produced by Channel Nine and Look Television.

campDARE is an organisation founded by Brett Murray regarded as an authority on youth motivation. It began when Murray started taking disadvantaged youth from the outer western suburbs of Sydney on surfing trips. campDARE's philosophy is that young people need challenges. The organisation is dedicated to providing young people with opportunities to live life with excellence. Murray and the other campDARE leaders and volunteers are committed to the task of changing young people's lives. campDARE challenges and inspires adolescents from both disadvantaged and privileged backgrounds.

Given a map and compass, the boys in this documentary are given some basic army rations and told to find their way to civilisation. Out here in some of the most treacherous country imaginable, they will learn about hardship, mateship and leadership. They will discover their physical and mental limits, and that sometimes there is no turning back.

The series and the study guide are powerful resources for use in secondary classrooms, all age levels. The guide provides activities to encourage students to discuss the values of discipline, responsibility and leadership that define the campDARE philosophy and to reflect upon the experiences of the young men in the story. The series makes significant use of interviews with the boys and the campDARE leaders.

The other main themes of the documentary – confidence, courage, persistence, commitment, teamwork and tolerance – are explored through close analysis of the boys' responses to their challenges and students' own experiences.

Media Studies students will enjoy the multimedia production task that is included in the guide and analysing Camp Dare as a reality television series. For Geography students the series and guide are a rich resource for learning about the Kimberleys and analysing maps of the region.

Curriculum Links:
Camp Dare has relevance to secondary students studying:

• Health and Physical Education
• Orienteering
• SOSE / HSIE
• Values Education
• Media Studies
• Geography