K
ey's commitment to providing a supportive environment for experiential learning extends far beyond the classroom. Opportunities for outdoor education are integral to the Key experience from Pre-Kindergarten through grade twelve.
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Opportunities for outdoor education
are integral to the Key experience.
All students, beginning in Middle School, participate in overnight trips that range from two to six days and include camping, backpacking, canoeing, kayaking, sailing, rock climbing, whitewater rafting, and environmental exploration. While the focus of exploration is on the Chesapeake Bay and Shenandoah National Park locales, groups also travel to Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia, and other parts of Maryland and Virginia.
View detailed descriptions of trip activities here.
The principles underlying Key's outdoor education program emphasize the development of community, the significance of leadership and teamwork, the discovery of both confidence and compassion, the value of respect for self and others, the need for stewardship of the environment, and the relevance of the natural world to learning in the classroom and beyond.
Middle School Outdoor Education
Fifth grade students walk to neighboring Quiet Waters Park early in the fall, and again in the spring, to spend a day focusing on community building activities while also making connections to their curricular work.
Sixth grade students camp for three days at Echo Hill on Maryland's Eastern Shore where they focus on individual challenges, team-building and Chesapeake Bay studies.
PHOTOS: Echo Hill
Seventh graders experience the rigors of a two-day backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail, as well as a four-day camping experience at Point Lookout State Park, which involves an introduction to canoeing and an in-depth look at ecosystems of the area in support of their science curriculum.
PHOTOS: Appalachian Trail, Point Lookout State Park
Eighth graders spend three days in the fall backpacking in the Shenandoah National Park and summiting the locally famous Old Rag Mountain. They also sail to Wye Island in the spring, where they spend six days camping, canoeing around the Island, and exploring its environments. The Outdoor Education Program also joins with the Physical Education Department in the winter to offer eighth graders a series of outdoor challenges and initiatives that promote individual and community growth through group problem-solving.
PHOTOS:Old Rag, Wye Island
Optional Trips: Key also offers Middle School students three optional trips during the year, including a day-hike on the Appalachian Trail in Maryland, a mountain biking trip at Patapsco State Park, and an inter-divisional (Middle School and Upper School) High Ropes Course Day at Camp Letts.
PHOTOS:Appalachian Trail Hike, Ropes Course, Mountain Biking Trip
Upper School Outdoor Education
In the Upper School, outdoor experiences grow in terms of scope, duration and interdisciplinary curricular connection.
The ninth grade Island Odyssey trip provides an opportunity to spend three days on Tangier, Smith and Fox Islands, studying ancient civilizations, physics, music, and art as well as the current environment of the Bay and its cultural implications.
PHOTOS: Island Odyssey
In the fall, tenth graders travel to Carderock near Great Falls, Maryland, for a three-day rock climbing trip that focuses on developing trust and communication within the class. In the spring, tenth grade students work together during a four-day canoeing and camping excursion, Rollin' on the River, where the study of history and chemistry become integral as they assess the impact of the Industrial Revolution on the region.
PHOTOS: Carderock
Eleventh grade biology students take several extended trips to explore the ecological interactions in and around the Chesapeake Bay, concluding their year with a five-day trip to Assateague Island where they investigate the area's diverse habitats.
PHOTOS: Assateague Island
The progression of trips in the outdoor program culminates with a twelfth grade whitewater rafting experience on the Youghiogheny River in Pennsylvania, offering the seniors an opportunity to discuss and plan their potential leadership initiatives for the year, and a spring two-day trip to Wye Island to celebrate the many accomplishments and successes throughout the years in the Outdoor Education Program.
PHOTOS: Leadership Rafting Trip
Optional trips: Additionally, all Upper School students have the opportunity to participate in an array of optional weekend trips throughout the fall, winter and early spring. Approximately fifteen percent of the Upper School student body are also trained as Outdoor Peer Leaders, and in that capacity help co-lead our Middle School backpacking experiences.
Summer Opportunities
Recent summer opportunities, available to Middle and Upper School students depending on the nature of the trip, have included: the Allagash Challenge, a 98-mile, fourteen-day wilderness canoe trip in northern Maine; the John Smith Chesapeake Water Trail Experience, a six-day backcountry canoe trip on the Patuxent River; the Peer Leadership Workshop, a five-day backpacking trip in Shenandoah National Park that focuses on outdoor leadership; the West Coast Adventure, a fourteen-day backpacking and paddling exploration of the Oregon Cascades and northern California redwoods regions; and the SusqueBayChallenge, a 633-mile canoe trip from the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem in New York, down the Susquehanna River to the southern waters of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia.
PHOTOS: Chesapeake Bay Kayaking
The opportunity to learn in these outdoor settings is a concept that has been embedded in the life of the School since its inception and has a profound impact on the students' academic work as well as the growth and well-being of the School community.