Wilderness Sports/Adventure Education

Physical Education is no longer the stereotypical running laps in a gymnasium type of class. In today’s culture PE has become more progressive and allows for more “outside of the box” teaching strategies, topics, and exercises. The emergence of Wilderness Sports/Adventure Education is the perfect example of a new topic that is far from the conventional ways of a Physical education class. In brief, these topics use unique situations and purposeful activities to provide an environment for learning. But more specifically, Wilderness Sports promote physically challenging outdoor activities (ex. camping, backpacking, canoeing, hiking, etc.) While Adventure Education can be defined as, activities in which obstacles are used or environments are created …show more content…
Many of these activities seem inherently difficult and very circumstantial, however there are many foundational skills embedded in these activities whether students are aware of it or not. According to the National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education, “Adventure education often employs practical skills that will benefit an individual in areas beyond the activities in an adventure program…” For example, while hiking for a Wilderness Sports class students need to use teamwork to navigate as a group, planning to bring the right supplies with them, and even judgment is tested when students have to decide which trails to follow or which path to take. Even in an Adventure Education class students are learning similar foundational skills that they can use for the rest of their lives. Take an activity such as a high ropes course; this is riddled with many skills that are crucial for a student’s development and success in the future. For instance, students must have trust in order to participate in the course at all, they will learn patience and persistence as they navigate through the ropes course, and students will learn the valuable skill of teamwork as they rely occasionally on other classmates for assistance. According to a study done by The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education, there are many different ways a student can take in and use the information they acquire with this curriculum model. One is called specific transfer, and this is when the student applies the habits and skills learned during an experience to a new and similar experience. For example, when a student learns how to belay during a rock climbing class and then uses that same knowledge when rappelling in the future. Another theory is called nonspecific transfer, and this is where the students