OUTDOOR EDUCATION

Cooperative learning and leadership skills are promoted through our Outdoor Education classes and the Classroom Jobs Program. Our teachers provide a challenging, stimulating environment with hands-on activities that involve activities such as gardening while learning the life cycle of plants, learning about food through planting seeds and watching the development of food. The Lower School program strives to instill a love of the outdoors in all of our students.  Our outdoor education curriculum helps students become confident in nature!

Every student in Middle School will participate in OEC for an entire quarter during each year of their Middle School career. This is a unique curriculum designed for each grade. Through the use of our challenge course, kayaking program, and group games and initiatives, students will learn the importance of team building and problem solving while increasing their knowledge of our local environment. At the start of this program, each middle school student will be taught how to be safe in our environment. 

Each grade level's curriculum is designed on the individual needs of that grade, every class includes reflections on why and how we interact as individuals and as a group.  This technique is a proven method for building a strong character.

In ninth grade, students enter into Leadership and have the opportunity to increase their understanding and effectiveness in areas that are critical to effective leaders. With communication, students study the impacts of speaking and listening in group settings. Students become the teacher by sharing their original ideas along with lesson plans that focus on teaching and managing safety while working in the outdoors.  Our students study different leadership styles and study effective motivational and involvement techniques. Goal setting is explored as is positive reinforcement and honest communication. Throughout the course, students are building the foundations for becoming leaders for life.

In tenth grade, students enter into the outdoor portion of the course with a focus on Ecology. This course aims to increase awareness of how we impact one another’s lives and the impact we have on our environment. The immediate goal is to reconnect students with their natural surroundings and with their fellow man. Subject material will run the gamut of flora and fauna of South Carolina, biodiversity, sustainability, teamwork, group dynamics, effective communication skills, and risk management. Students in this course have the opportunity to be leaders in the school and facilitate outdoor education opportunities for younger students.

In twelfth grade, students take a Wilderness Survival course. This course focuses heavily on self-reliance with skill-building in orienteering, fire building, effective ways to purify water, shelter building, and procurement of food. 

Eleventh and twelfth grades are given the opportunity to select Outdoor Education as their major. Students in this major will be exposed to many aspects of the Outdoor Education profession. Students in the Outdoor Education major will assist in teaching classes, creating curriculum, planning trips, and learn to set and maintain budgets for projects.

This year's Outdoor Education majors students are researching, planning, budgeting, and creating a curriculum for a new and innovative low ropes element for our school's challenge course.