Outdoor and

Adventure Education
PE 239
 Outdoor Education

 What is Outdoor Education?

 Outdoor education is organized learning that takes
place in the outdoors.

Examples:
Camping
Kayaking
Rock Climbing
Snowboarding
 Importance of Outdoor
Education

http://serc.carleton.edu/images/introgeo/enviroprojects/kolb_cycle.gif
  Outdoor education gives depth to the curriculum and
makes an important contribution to students’ physical,
personal and social education (Why is Outdoor Education
Important?).

 Allows students to experience a different learning style

by being in a different environment and using different
skills.

http://www.bryn-y-mor.com/JPEG/kayaking-outdoor-education.jpg
 Different branches of
Outdoor Education:
Environmental Adventure
Education Education

http://thebroadhead.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/submerged_group.284215605_std.JPG http://www.lifesip.com/images/adventure-education-1.jpg
 Environmental Education

 Definition- Teaches students how the planets physical and

biological systems work, and how we can create a more
sustainable future (Environmental Education, 2012).
Environmental education
teaches individuals how to
weigh various sides of an
issue through critical
thinking and it enhances
their own problem-solving
and decision-making skills
(Environmental Education
and Literacy, 2012).
.
 Components of
Environmental Education
 Awareness and sensitivity to the environment and
environmental challenges.
 Knowledge and understanding of the environment and
environmental challenges.
 Attitudes of concern for the environment and motivation
to improve or maintain environmental quality
 Skills to identify and help resolve environmental
challenges
 Participation in activities that lead to the resolution of
environmental challenges
(Environmental Education and Literacy, 2012)
 Adventure Education

 Definition- Focuses on building self-confidence and

leadership qualities through experiential and
collaborative learning (Maatta, 2012).

 Adventure learning occurs outdoors, incorporating

extreme conditions, and online through "expedition"
activities. It combines experiential learning with
decision-making, team building and the application
of real-world situations to the learning environment
(Maatta, 2012).
 The English word adventure comes from the French
term aventure, which evolved from the Latin term adventurus,
which means simply “about to arrive” but which over time
has come to connote an exciting event that contains elements
of risk and/or danger and where the outcome is uncertain.

 The term adventure is broad enough to cover any enterprise

potentially fraught with risk, such as a business venture,
major life undertaking, or even trying a new restaurant. But
for our purposes in this book, and relative to OAE in
general, adventure will imply a pursuit in an outdoor setting
within an educational context.
Components of Adventure
Education
 Independence & Personal Responsibility
 Simplicity
 Creativity
 Ownership
 Concern, Fairness, Empathy and Openness.
 Self-directed Learning
 Cooperation and Teamwork
 Interactivity
 Physical Activity
 Positive Reinforcement
(Panicucci, 2002)
 Essential Practices of
Adventure Education
 The Experiential Learning Cycle

 Full Value Contract

 Challenge by Choice

 A process not outcome based curriculum model

 Experiential Learning
Cycle
 Experiential Learning Cycle
 “Learning is the process whereby knowledge is
created through the transformation of experience”
(David A. Kolb, 1984).

http://serc.carleton.edu/images/introgeo/enviroprojects/kolb_cycle.gif
 Full Value Contract

 Guideline for what is expected from students during

class
 Written by students and teacher together

 Gives students some responsibility

 Students help make the rules so they will be more

likely to follow them

(Panicucci, 2002)
 Challenge by Choice

 “Coaxing young people into doing a difficult task or

element teaches them only that they can be talked
into doing something. On the other hand, helping
students to see that they have the right and ability to
choose their level of challenge, and how to assess
what is and isn’t an appropriate level of challenge,
teaches them how to make positive decisions for life
(Panicucci, 2002).”
 Benefits of Adventure
Education
 Interpersonal Skills
 Trust, teamwork, effective communication,
cooperation

 Intrapersonal Skills
 Leadership, decision making, self confidence
 Activities Included in
Adventure Education
 Problem Solving Activities
 https://redrockadventure.com.au/mine-field

 Ropes Course

 Initiatives

 Team building activities

(Adventure Activities from Headrush Outbound ,

2012)
 Confusion between Outdoor
Education and Adventure
Education
 OUTDOORS!

 Adventure Ed is based more on team building

activities, but can also be outdoors.
 Role of the Teacher

 Enforce safety and rules

 Spotting and all other safety areas

 Be a problem presenter, not a problem solver

 Modify the challenge if too easy or hard for students

 Encourage

 Create atmosphere so all students feel comfortable

to participate
 Value of The Model

 Students will gain:

 Leadership skills
 self-confidence
 Teamwork skills
 Decision-making skills

 Unique Contribution
 Allows the students to get away from the normal classroom
environment.
 Might draw more enthusiasm out of the students with the change in
environment.
 Connection to the
Standards
 Standards 5 and 6 are major focus (NH Guidelines 6 and 5)

 Intent of standard 5 is to develop self-initiated behaviors to

promote personal and group success
 Standard 6 is achieved when students develop an
awareness of intrinsic and extrinsic values and benefits of
participating in adventure activities
 Also helps achieve the cognitive focus of Standard 2 (NH
Guideline 4)
(Lund & Tannehill, 2010)
 Assessment

 Standard 6
 Group processing
 Have students create own initiative

 Formal
 Portfolio

 Informal
 Group processing (debriefing)

(Lund & Tannehill, 2010)

 Concluding Thoughts

 Self-discovery and building communication skills

is important for the class since you are in a group
set-up, it is most likely that you communicate
with everybody, it may not be all, but most of the
time. Trust, respect, and teamwork also helps for
the class climate. We would include this model in
our curriculum because of these positives listed
above.
 Work Cited
Adventure Activities from Headrush Outbound . (2012). Retrieved October 2012, from Headrush Outbound:
http://www.headrush.in/outbound/otheractivities.htm
Environmental Education. (2012). Retrieved October 2012, from Ontario Ministry of Outdoor Education:
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/ teachers/enviroed/education.html
Environmental Education and Literacy. (2012, April 16). Retrieved October 2012, from EPA United States Environmental
Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov/education/basic.html
Lewin, K. (2011, August 8). The Experiental Learning Cycle. Retrieved October 2012, from Learning and Teaching: http://
www.learningandteaching.info/learning/experience.htm
Lund, J., & Tannehill, D. (2010). Standards-Based Physical Education Curriculum Development. (S. Edition, Ed.) Sudbury,
Mass, US: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Maatta, S. (2012). The Definition of Adventure Learning . Retrieved October 2012, from eHow: http://www.ehow.com/
about_6585621_definition-adventure-learning.html
Mcleod, S. (2010). Kolb- Learning Styles Inventory. Retrieved October 2012, from Simply Psychology:
http://www.simplypsychology.org/ learning-kolb.html
Panicucci, J. (2002). Adventure Curriculum for Physical Education. Beverly, Mass, US: Project Adventure, Inc.
Watters, R. (1999). The Common Adventure Model of Outdoor Programming: Philosophical Foundations, Definition and the Effect
of Filtering . Retrieved October 2012, from http://www.isu.edu/outdoor/CADefine.htm
Why is Outdoor Education Important? (n.d.). Retrieved October 2012, from Blaenau Gwent:
http://www.blaenau-gwent.gov.uk/education/ 13915.asp
 
 CAMPING
Is a Recreational Activity that is outdoor in nature,
in which participants take up temporary residence
in the outside, usually using tents or specially
designed or adapted vehicles for shelter. Camping
was at one time only a rough, back-to-nature
pastime for hardy open-air lovers, but it later
became the standard holiday for vast numbers of
ordinary families.
 History of Camping
 The founder of modern recreational camping was Thomas
Hiram Holding, who wrote the first edition of The Camper’s
Handbook in 1908.
 His urge to camp derived from his experiences as a boy: in 1853
he crossed the prairies of the United States in a wagon train,
covering some 1,200 miles (1,900 km) with a company of 300.
 In 1877 he camped with a canoe on a cruise in the Highlands of
Scotland, and he made a similar trip the next year.
 He wrote two books on these ventures. Later he used a bicycle as
his camping vehicle and wrote Cycle and Camp (1898).
 Did you know?

Holding founded the first camping club in the

world, the Association of Cycle Campers, in
1901. By 1907 it had merged with a number of
other clubs to form the Camping Club of Great
Britain and Ireland. Robert Falcon Scott, the
famous Antarctic explorer, became the first
president of the Camping Club in 1909.
 Did you know?

After World War I, Robert Baden-Powell, founder of

the Boy Scouts and the Girl Guides, became
president of the Camping Club of Great Britain and
Ireland, which fostered the establishment of
camping organizations in a number of western
European countries. In 1932 the International
Federation of Camping and Caravanning (Fédération
Internationale de Camping et de Caravanning; FICC)
was formed—the first international camping
organization.
 Did you know?
In North America individuals camped in the wilderness
for recreation from the early 1870s, traveling on foot, on
horseback, or by canoe; but there was no organized
camping. Many organizations, such as the Adirondack
Mountain Club (founded 1922), the Appalachian
Mountain Club (1876), and the Sierra Club (1892), have
catered to campers for a long time. However, the
organization of campers on a large scale did not develop
until after World War II, when increased leisure time
and the advent of camping with motorized vehicles
caused a tremendous growth in the activity.
 Did you know?
The majority of organized campers in North
America belong to local clubs, but there are
two large-scale national organizations in the
United States (National Campers and Hikers
Association and North American Family
Campers Association) and one in Canada
(Canadian Federation of Camping and
Caravanning).
 Did you know?

Individual camping is very popular in

Australia and New Zealand, but
organized facilities are relatively few
compared with those in North America.
Recreational camping continues to
increase in popularity in Africa and
portions of Asia.
 YOUTH CAMPING
Organized camping of another kind started in the
United States in 1861 with a boys’ camp, run by
Frederick William Gunn and his wife at Milford-on-
the-Sound for students of the Gunnery School for
Boys in Washington, Conn. Its success was
immediate and was repeated for 18 successive years.
Other similar camps began to develop. The first girls’
camp was established in 1888 by Luther Halsey
Gulick and his wife on the Thames River in
Connecticut.
When the Boy Scouts of America was formed in 1910 by 
Ernest Thompson Seton, it incorporated camping as a
major part of its program. Similar emphasis on camping
was to be found in the Girl Guides (founded in Great
Britain in 1910), the Camp Fire Boys and Girls (U.S., 1910),
and the Girl Scouts (U.S., 1912; patterned after the Girl
Guides). Most other organizations concerned with young
people, such as the Young Men’s Christian Association
 (YMCA), the Young Women’s Christian Association
 (YWCA), and many others, also undertook camp
development as an important part of their activities.
 MODERN CAMPING
 All forms of camping, from primitive to motorized, continue
to grow in popularity, particularly in the United States,
Canada, and western Europe. Much of this growth is the
result of the proliferation of campsites for 
recreational vehicles (RVs). In particular, many public and
commercial campsites cater to RVs by setting aside paved
parking regions in picturesque locations. Camping on
public land is especially popular in the United States and
Canada, where federal and regional government agencies
strive to meet the burgeoning public demand. Commercial
RV campgrounds typically have electrical and water
hookups that provide most of the conveniences of home in
an outdoor setting.
 Did you know?

There have been many technical advances in

camping materials and gear. Lightweight nylon
tents are easier to pack and set up than their
canvas predecessors, they offer superior
protection from rain, and they are also easier to
carry, which has facilitated a boom in hiking
and camping. Lightweight aluminum cookware
and portable stoves have also reduced the
overall weight of gear for primitive campers.