Outdoor Education
Self-Sufficiency, Community, and Leadership
Central to an Explorer West Middle School education is our Outdoor Education program. It provides our students with some of the most important experiences of their young lives outside of the classroom. On Outdoor Education trips, students connect in spectacular ways with their peers, their teachers, and their outdoor community.
Students participate in a progressively challenging curriculum that begins in sixth grade with an introduction to the outdoors while camping at Fort Worden State Park; extends to winter snowshoeing and cross country skiing; moves on to frontcountry, and then backcountry, camping; and culminates in eighth grade with a challenging 20+ mile backpacking trip along the Olympic Coast.
The Outdoor Education program builds skills sequentially year over year. As students gain experience and knowledge, they grow their confidence, self-sufficiency, connection with one another, leadership, and appreciation of our wild places.
In three years at Explorer West, students will spend 33 days outdoors developing the following skills:
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Minimum Impact and Leave-no-Trace camping practices
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Map reading and navigation skills
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Basic first aid
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Leadership and cooperation
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Reflection and self-examination
A key goal of our program is to prepare our students for a lifetime of safe, fun, sustainable outdoor adventures in the beautiful, variable, and wild Pacific Northwest, and beyond.
On our last Outdoor Education trip along the coast, we played a game of low tide, driftwood baseball. Home plate was a washed-up sea bass, so there was no sliding into home! It was a blast, even after hiking 6-8 miles that day.
EW Student
I'll never forget the breathtaking sights and amazing experiences that bonded us. We worked like a family and played like a family.