The Dangers of “Pay for Play”: Challenge Discovery vs. Go Ape and other adventure parks   In August 2016, a woman tragically fell 35 feet to her death from a zip line platform at the Go Ape Tree Top Adventure Park in Delaware. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/08/25/woman-plunges-to-her-death-off-zip-line-in-delaware.html   The popularity of adventure parks in this country continues to soar, fueled by adrenaline junkies who seek to check things off their bucket list. This new adventure recreation industry was born out of what began as adventure education. It’s not ..

On a recent road trip, I listened to an American Radioworks podcast called Beyond the Blackboard: Building Character in Public Schools. The podcast starts off with a scene of a group of students from a school in New York on an outdoor trip in upstate New York. The students spend a day at a ropes course. The story follows the students throughout this week-long trip, and we hear that the students are pushed to try new things, rely on their friends, and work as a group. Through ..

About a month ago, we gathered at the course for a week to meet and train a new group of facilitators. These people arrived eager to learn, ready to be challenged, and excited to grow. A few of them had experienced Challenge Discovery before or had a son or daughter that had done it in the past. A couple had never heard of it until very recently. All of them had sought us out, applied and interviewed, and were ready to learn everything about Challenge ..

Graduating to high school can mean larger classes, bigger school buildings, more responsibility, and more freedom. Students are almost always excited, but they can also feel anxiety and frustration. As a teacher, here are 5 things to consider in your middle school classroom.   Stress management From grades to bullying to family environments, there are so many reasons why even middle-schoolers experience stress. You’ve seen it in your classrooms – students are tired from lack of sleep, they are noticeable upset or worried, and sometimes ..

Welcome Back Students! With the school year starting, it’s that time of year for students of all ages to start a new chapter in their lives. Challenge Discovery begins each school year by working with various colleges, who bring out their leadership groups such as Orientation Leaders and Resident Assistants. Most groups will come to us in their very first few days getting together to help break down individual barriers, learn about each other in an uncommon environment, and start the year off right by ..

Real World Skills #3 For the past few weeks, we’ve shared about some skills participants may not realize they are taking back to the “real world” at the end of a Challenge Discovery program. Groups come to Challenge Discovery for a field trip or corporate event and go through our high ropes course in Richmond, Virginia, and we hope to send them home with some takeaways about team building. If you haven’t had a chance, check out our last two posts with insights about “Helpful ..

Real World Skills #2   Last week we started to examine some skills participants may not even realize they are taking back to the “real world” at the end of a Challenge Discovery program. If you haven’t had a chance, check out last week’s post with insights about helpful feedback. This week, we are going to take a closer look at the art of “Thinking Outside of the Box.” During a field trip to Challenge Discovery, we talk about thinking outside the box often, but ..

When people hear the words “challenge course” and “goals,” you might have these initial thoughts: Teamwork, Communication, and Leadership. While all of those are important skills to work on, they are just a few that participants may learn while participating in a Challenge Discovery program. In fact, there are some skills participants may not even realize they are taking back to the “real world” at the end of the day! For the next few weeks, we are going to take a closer look at some ..

It was a blistering hot midsummer afternoon when I arrived at Challenge Discovery in Richmond, Virginia. As I gazed across the field, I shrunk in terror from the height of the ropes course that stood in front of me. I am deathly afraid of heights and I have never done anything like this. Here goes nothing, I thought to myself. My facilitator, the Challenge Discovery staff member, must have noticed how terrified I was, because she made sure my teammates and I could trust each ..