While working and playing together at camp, staff often work through most, if not all, of the stages of group formation, commonly referred to as forming, storming, norming, performing, and finally, transforming. Ten adventure-based games and activities are presented to help camp directors train staff and help them progress through these stages.…

A residential ninth-grade program in the Australian bush strives to develop initiative, personal integrity, respect for nature, leadership, self-esteem, and sense of community by combining academic study with a strong outdoor education program, replacing competitive sports with cooperative activities, requiring students to be responsible for…

Hypnotic language can increase the transference of learning from an adventure activity to a therapeutic goal by absorbing the client in the experience, ratifying that absorption, and eliciting the client's resources to address problematic situations. Provides examples of using this approach in adventure therapy to enhance a client's experience and…

Interpretive techniques for encouraging participants to experience a deeper level of environmental growth during outdoor activities include group discussions, creative writing, artistic expression, visualization, sensitization, group activities introducing participants to various aspects of the environment, reflective thinking, the use of…

Reviews theories of leadership development relevant to the design of outdoor adventure programs for corporate executives and managers. Summarizes likely objectives and methods of outdoor development programs and their theoretical basis. Presents a framework for program comparison that correlates leadership outcomes with learning methods at…

Identifies expedition types reflecting different educational values including classic quests, pursuits of wealth, scientific explorations, wilderness existentialism, and military missions. Examines conceptualization, preparation, action, and reflection/reporting as "critical" phases of adventure education experience. Discusses…

Describes Project Choices, a residential treatment program for drug-abusing adjudicated adolescents that employs the adventure-based counseling model to instill change. Describes Project Choices goals as being the reduction of conduct-disordered behavior associated with delinquency and drug use. Presents program evaluation results which suggest…

Insights from chaos theory--the interconnectedness of everything, nonlinear cause and effect, leverage and the "tipping point," and the importance of aligning interventions within a system--are applied to social action and illustrated via the role of adventure education in school and community interventions in the Brattleboro (Vermont) Leadership…

"Moments at the edge" occur when adventure participants reach the boundaries of their assumptions and mental frames and are ready to experiment with a new, more successful, mindset. Facilitators can support this experiment if the moment is recognized. Several indicators of the edge are described, and a case study of "edgework"…

The Anglican Youth Department (AYD) (Sydney, Australia) sponsors Camp Challenge, a 7-day wilderness program for at-risk youth with a 6-week follow-up. A local community contact and local police attend throughout and serve as positive community contacts after the program is over. Parents meet while the groups are in the wilderness. Discusses other…

A conference explored consolidation and professionalization of the Australian outdoor industry. Key issues, five areas of the outdoor industry, and signposts of what constitutes a profession were identified. Tensions between industry needs and the role of higher education, the underrepresentation of Blacks and women, and effects of accreditation…

Type of adventure program (recreational, educational, developmental, or therapeutic) is determined by its purpose for change, not its client population. Facilitation techniques used in different types of adventure programs include letting the experience speak for itself, interpreting the experience, debriefing clients on the experience, direct…

In November 2000, a conference in London hosted by three outdoor education associations examined the growing culture of risk aversion in the United Kingdom, the role of risk in learning, the increasing difficulty of finding a balance between risk and adventure, and the challenges of tempting children away from computer games and dealing with…

The Healthy Nations initiative supported 14 American Indian and Alaska Native communities in their efforts to reduce the harm done by drug and alcohol abuse. Three programs in Pueblo, Navajo, Apache, and Alaskan communities are described, that entail community organizing, youth recreational activities, indigenous role models, adventure activities,…

This paper describes the development of an outdoor education camp that assists young people in recognizing new responsibilities and celebrating transition into young adulthood. Using the concept of initiation, the camp marked the beginning of a process which involved adolescents in developing an identity as young adults, increasing personal…