Principia Adventure Trips Take to the Great Outdoors
Rock climbing, lashing, canoeing, backpacking, orienteering, fire building, mountain biking, and challenge courses—these are all activities our Middle School students are mastering through Principia Adventure (PA). Designed to foster character development and build future-ready skills, Principia Adventure instills lessons of collaboration, selfless service, self-awareness, challenge, and leadership through experiential learning opportunities and hands-on projects outside the classroom.
Students take on various adventures throughout the year, including overnight trips where they take what they’ve learned in their PA units and put those skills into practice. Previously, PA took place exclusively on the Principia School Challenge Course, incorporating rock climbing, high and low ropes courses, and a variety of team-building activities. This year, Principia Adventure continued to utilize valuable resources on campus while adding in new challenge opportunities. Led by faculty members Doug Hoff and Monnie Brodbeck (C'90), Principia Adventure is an exciting, innovative learning experience helping students reach new heights and expand their horizons.
The fall semester focused on building wilderness skills, and winter was centered around service-related activities both on and off campus. The program also introduced “PRINternships” this year, a unit allowing eighth graders to meet with professionals across departments on the School campus. Students worked one-on-one with these professionals and learned more about their roles and responsibilities through immersion and hands-on projects.
This spring, each Middle School grade took part in an overnight trip designed around the campcraft skills they’ve learned. Sixth-grade students went rock climbing and explored Cahokia Mounds and Forest Park in St. Louis. Seventh graders biked 30 miles along the Katy Trail and returned to campus to set up camp, grilling burgers and cooking s’mores over a fire before sleeping under tarps they assembled. Eighth-grade students went canoeing on Lake Carlyle, learning “T-Rescue” techniques in case a boat tips over. Because of the windy conditions, paddling at Carlyle Lake required plenty of perseverance, grit, courage, and teamwork.
“Our intended outcome for these trips is witnessing each of the students demonstrate the transfer of knowledge and experience,” Brodbeck says. “The lessons learned through these experiences are applicable to real-life situations that involve effective communication, focus, persistence, and critical thinking. We’ve seen incredible leadership demonstrated by the students as well—it can be difficult to speak up and assert yourself as a middle schooler, but these courageous collaborators are doing just that—and doing it with impressive confidence.”
Shortly after the Challenge Course was first built on campus and introduced in 2010, Principia Adventure began under the name Project Adventure. Today, the program encompasses a wide range of lessons and activities, including orienteering, fire building, canoeing, lashing, backpacking, biking, and shelter building. The program also fits nicely into the School’s overall goal of teaching and implementing sustainability.
“If you want to preserve nature, you have to feel connected to it,” Hoff says. “Principia Adventure allows students to experience nature, learn to respect it, and reflect on their impact on this planet.”
When you are learning by doing, incredible growth takes place. Principia Adventure is one of many examples of students growing through direct experience. Future plans for Principia Adventure include sharing learning resources with other schools in the area and facilitating workshops for educators and programs for students outside of the Principia community.
Learn more about Principia Adventure in the May “Conversations with Peter Dry” vlog.