NCOAE Blog

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If you’re thinking about enrolling in a Teen Adventure Course and you’re wondering how to prepare, then this blog post is for you!

It’s a daily occurrence here at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE). Someone calls or writes to ask how should they prepare for one of our courses. And while enrolling and paying is a great start, there’s more to it than just that.

Below, we present a 30,000-foot overview of how to prepare for an outdoor adventure-based course offered by NCOAE.

Physical Fitness (‘drop and give me 20!’ NOT): While our courses never involve forced marches (we leave those ‘experiences’ to the military), you should be able to handle a serious of strenuous hikes over consecutive days. A good rule of thumb… place four gallon-jugs of water into a backpack and take a walk around your neighborhood. If you find it difficult to carry that amount of weight for more than five to 10 minutes, you’ll need to build some strength and endurance before showing up for your course. Four gallons of water, it turns out, weighs roughly 35lbs, which is just about equal to the weight of the gear you’ll be carrying on one of our teen adventure courses. If water isn’t your thing, here’s a short list of other ‘stuff’ that weighs approximately 35lbs:

• 7 reams of copy paper
• 560 pencils
• 3,350 pennies
• 3,175 nickels
• 7,000 dimes
• 2,800 quarters
• 7 five-pound bags of potatoes

At the end of each day on the trail, you and your course mates will be able to dump your packs and rest before gathering yourselves up to helping to prepare that night’s campsite and meal (which is another way of saying that once that 35lbs is off your back, there’s still some work left to do).

Fear not… if the 35lb thing turns you off or seems too strenuous, we offer a number of courses where the physical requirements aren’t as high (and for younger kids, your can throw the 35lb rule-of-thumb thing out the window). Give our office a call at (910) 399-8090 to learn which of our courses is right for you.

Comfort Zone (let’s step out of it): Participating in an NCOAE adventure involves more than strapping on a backpack and trekking over and alongside scenic trails, peaks and waterways. Being willing to step out of your physical and emotional comfort zone is a must when traveling in a group of 10-12 of your peers. This means sharing your (more…)

If you’re interested in advancing your career in outdoor and adventure-based experiential education, you really should attend one of AEE’s 2014 regional conferences. AEE (which stands for Association for Experiential Education) is a professional membership association with roots in adventure education that’s committed to the development, practice, and evaluation of experiential learning in all settings. And the organization’s regional conferences – which take place each spring between March and May – offer truly awesome and exceptional professional development opportunities for outdoor and adventure-based educators.

For those of us who work at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE), AEE’s lineup of regional conferences offers us the opportunity to:

• Network with others in our field
• Expand our understanding of topics related to the work we perform
• Stimulate our professional curiosity and programmatic creativity
• See lots of old friends and colleagues
• Make new friends (enough to last a lifetime)

This year, AEE is offering spring conferences in seven geographical regions across the U.S., including: (more…)

After recently watching 13-year-old Logan LaPlante discussing his concept of learning during a TEDx (Technology, Entertainment, Design) event in Nevada, our co-founders Zac and Celine Adair jokingly said they want to adopt this self-proclaimed hacker of education.

Young Logan spoke before an audience at the University of Nevada last February, where he discussed the disconnect between education and happiness. The theme of his 11-minute talk – which you can watch via the YouTube embed below – rang true for Zac and Celine, who developed the curriculum here at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE). That curriculum, which we’ll be blogging about in the weeks and months to follow, promotes self, community, action and impact for teens and adults alike.

Wearing a ski cap and the confidence of a veteran circuit speaker, this home-taught youngster who is barely a teen-ager, told the TEDx audience that much of what passes for education is oriented toward making a living rather than making a life. Then he asked, “What would happen if we based education on the study and practice of being happy and healthy?”

We couldn’t agree more. In fact, Celine reminds us that NCOAE’s outdoor and adventure education offerings are designed with improvement in self-actualization, decision-making, and esteem, communication, teamwork, civic responsibility and environmental stewardship in mind.

Equally important is the fact that our course participants have the (more…)

We’re pleased to announce that The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE) has received approval from the State of North Carolina and the North Carolina Office of Emergency Medical Services to offer an intensive 19-day EMT-Basic training.

And what that means to anyone interested in securing their EMT-Basic credentials is that within three weeks of starting our intensive training, you’ll have the knowledge and experience to successfully pass the National Registry exam as well as North Carolina’s state exam, earning your EMT credentials.

After that, you’ll have the option of staying with us for an additional five days for a practical session and certification of the Wilderness Upgrade. This certifies you as an EMT-B and WEMT from the Wilderness Medicine Training Center.

With your EMT credentials in hand, you’ll have an opportunity to enter a field that the Bureau of Labor Statistics claims is a “growing occupation.” Most certified emergency medical technicians (EMTs) find immediate employment at hospitals and ambulance companies, and many work for police or fire departments, receiving the same benefits as firemen and policemen — including pensions.

The median salary for an EMT is $27,070 per year, with entry-level employees averaging $17,300 and the top 10 percent earning $45,280.

There are three levels of EMT training:

• Basic EMT
• EMT-Advanced
• EMT-Paramedic

Students working toward the Basic EMT (a.k.a. EMT-B) credential here at NCOAE study patient assessment, the principals of pharmacology, BLS resuscitation, and participate in (more…)

Welcome to The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE) Blog. There’s an unspoken rule in the blogosphere that says we’re obligated to post a “welcome to our blog” entry, so we’ll play along (we wouldn’t want to upset the balance of the interweb by not playing by such geeky rules).

Those of us who conceived of NCOAE and are responsible for its daily operation have been reading blogs for quite a while now. And quite frankly, we’ve been struck by the lack of information on the blogosphere focused on outdoor and adventure-based experiential education. As an organization led by experts in experiential education, backcountry and wilderness guiding, and the successful facilitation of a core curriculum that emphasis teamwork, environmental stewardship and the acquisition of technical skills, we felt it was time for us to add our voice to the ongoing dialogues that shape our industry.

As most people know by now, a blog affords us the opportunity to reach out into the community more often, thereby making our thoughts and ourselves available to more of you. Over the weeks, months and years to follow, our staff will use this blog to share:

• The latest NCOAE news and developments
• Special offers on upcoming NCOAE Courses and Trainings
• Interviews with successful students and course participants
• Info on opportunities for non-NCOAE professional development
• Staff interviews/spotlights
• Curated content of interest to our many stakeholders
• Insights into the NCOAE curriculum
• Our latest job openings
• Details about items that are on promotion or sale in our online store
• And much, much more!

Blogging is a two-way street. Each NCOAE blog post will include an opportunity for you – our stakeholders – to leave a comment, ask a question, tell us why you disagree with something we’ve written, or sound off on a topic that’s really important to you. Simply click the Comment link at the end of any entry to get started.