Project Adventure
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Project Adventure is an international
nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
education organization based in
Beverly, Massachusetts Beverly is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, and a suburb of Boston. The population was 42,670 at the time of the 2020 United States Census. A resort, residential, and manufacturing community on the Massachusetts North Shore, Beverly incl ...
. The mission of Project Adventure is to provide leadership in the expansion of adventure-based experiential programming.


History

Project Adventure began as an adventure-based physical education program at the
Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School (HWRHS) is a public high school in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, United States. It is the only high school in the Hamilton-Wenham Regional School District, which has its administrative offices in Wenham, Massa ...
in Massachusetts in 1971. Across approximately half a heavily wooded acre behind the school, a range of stations were installed including a low tightrope, a "monkey bridge" approximately twenty feet above ground, and a trapeze hanging about six feet away from a small platform at the top of a tall pegged pole. At this latter station, students on belay climbed the pole, stood upright on the small platform, and leaped across to try to grasp the trapeze. Students developed problem solving and collaboration skills, as well as overcoming fears and gaining confidence in their physical abilities. Another related tradition at the school was the infamous "mud walk" where students in the biology program were lashed together for a walk through the Miles River swamp which abutted the Project Adventure grounds. The shortest of students often needed to be helped by others from disappearing below the surface; this support did not always keep them from being submerged temporarily, and all clothes had to be discarded after the activity. However, students were always permitted to opt out of the Project Adventure exercises and the mud walk. By applying
Outward Bound Outward Bound (OB) is an international network of outdoor education organizations that was founded in the United Kingdom by Lawrence Holt and Kurt Hahn in 1941. Today there are organizations, called schools, in over 35 countries which are att ...
's adventure learning principles in schools, the organization received federal funding to expand its programs across the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.Neill, J. (2005
Project Adventure - In Brief
Wilderdom.com. Retrieved 8/18/07.
This high school is located in Hamilton Massachusetts and in 2011 placed as the 9th best school in Massachusetts.


See also

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Association for Experiential Education The Association for Experiential Education, or AEE, is a nonprofit, professional membership association that promotes experiential education. Currently based in St. Petersburg, Florida, USA, it was founded in the early 1970s in Boone, North Car ...
*
Karl Rohnke Karl Rohnke (1937-2020) is a key figure in the development of adventure education, and was instrumental in the creation of Project Adventure in the early 1970s. Biography After graduating from Washington & Lee University in 1960, Rohnke was draf ...


References


External links


Project Adventure website
Non-profit organizations based in Massachusetts Youth organizations based in Massachusetts Outdoor education organizations Educational organizations based in the United States Beverly, Massachusetts {{edu-org-stub