Adult Expeditions
…Explore the wilderness — and your own capability to lead, learn, and grow on an NCOAE Adult Expedition. Register for a course today!…

NCOAE Recommends
Running as Exploration? Re-ignite Your Inner Beginner — Part 2
…Francis Bacon, the Renaissance statesman and philosopher best known for his promotion of the scientific method, is credited with the expression, “Knowledge is power.” But to those of us who prefer to see a world bathed in fresh new adventures, knowledge can actually be a curse. Here at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure…

Gap Semester
…Make an impact with a gap program that extends your education around the world. Learn more about NCOAE gap year programs and register today….

Outdoor Recreation
Making Outdoor Recreation and Adventure More Inclusive
…When next you find yourself in a wilderness area, whether that be at a national park in another state or a local or state park closer to home, take a moment to look at the folks around you while you’re enjoying the flora, fauna and pristine views. What you’re likely to notice is a lack…

Teen Courses
NCOAE And The 20 Wilderness Areas You Have to See Before You Die
…The Wilderness Society — which is way up there near the top of the list for conservation organizations working to protect our nation’s shared wildlands — recently released its list of 20 wilderness areas to see before you die. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the nation’s Wilderness Act, which protects more than…

The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE) and the University of North Carolina Wilmington Form Academic Relationship
Wilmington, N.C., April 3, 2018 –The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE) — a Wilmington-based organization that promotes critical thinking, environmental stewardship, and the acquisition of technical outdoor skills through accredited outdoor and adventure-based experiential education courses — today announced an academic relationship with the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW). Beginning summer…

AEE
Working Our Way Toward AEE Accreditation
…There are lots of things that separate the work we do here at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE) from others who offer outdoor education, wilderness trips and wilderness medical training for youths and adults. For starters, unlike other many other outdoor adventure education providers, we operate using a core curriculum that…

Experiential Education
Making Education Loud, Exciting, Exhausting, Dirty — and Transformative
…Covered in mud, we return to the sterile walls of the school. Nearby, students and teachers stop and stare at us. We say nothing. We keep moving, exhausted from our time spent in the wilderness, observing, interacting, developing skills to survive, absorbing information and processing the incredible time we had spent as a group. What…

Outdoor Education
Advice: Starting an Outdoor Education or Adventure Program in Your School
Working in outdoor education is incredible rewarding and fulfilling! Learn more about what it takes to get started on your courses today!…

Staff Profiles
A Tip of Our Cap to the Wilderness Medical Society
…One thing we don’t do here at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education is work within a vacuum. We depend heavily upon many organizations that went before us or that help us realize our mission and full potential. Today, we’d like to shine the light on one of those groups that works behind…

Typical Day
…Learn about what a typical day could look like on an NCOAE expedition. Start your adventure with us today….

Wildlife
The Three Bears: Part 3 — Decision Time for the Trailbike Rider
…Editor’s Note: Below is final part in Stephen Mullaney’s three-part series of essays about encounters with bears in the backcountry. The first essay in the series recants the shock Stephen experienced with one particular bear encounter, while the second essay in this series attempts to find humor in a persistent bear taking up quarters in an…

Life At NCOAE
Why You Should Help Support Outdoor Education
…The novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic James Baldwin said it best when he wrote: “We are responsible for the world in which we find ourselves, if only because we are the only sentient force which can change it.” Those words guide us here at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE)….
Private and Independent Schools
Make an impact on your students by bringing an NCOAE program to your private or independent school. Request a custom program today!…

Custom Programs
At NCOAE, We Don’t Cut Cookies — We Plan Dreams
…“The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page.” ~ Saint Augustine On those many occasions when schools, clubs, organizations, or companies ask us to come up with an adventure/education excursion for their group, we don’t reach into a cabinet and pull out a cookie-cutter version of a wilderness…

NCOAE Wilderness Medicine Field Guide Resources
NCOAE Wilderness Medicine Field Guide Resources…
Semester School – Admissions & How To Apply
NCOAE offers select high school credits through Blueprint Education, an accredited distance learning school for grades 8 through 12….

Emergency Medicine
EMTs Come to the Rescue in Natural Disasters
…In the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, we discuss the integral role EMT professionals play in supporting communities after natural disasters….
Outdoor Equipment
NCOAE’s 2024 Camping and Outdoor Adventure Gear Improvement Guide
…Thinking about upgrading your outdoor adventure gear for 2024? Check our our improvement guide to help you decide what to keep and what to retire!…

Adventure Education
Outdoor Education Provides Education for Life
…Editor’s Note: This year, the NCOAE blog is going to cover a variety of topics, written by a variety of our staff members. Topics will include best practices in Adventure Education (both in and out of wilderness settings), land use, history of course areas, flora and fauna, cooking, and why us “dirtbags” may be the…
