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INNOVATIVE PROGRAMMING AWARD (IPA) WINNERS!
It's a tough job to be a judge for the IPA. This year 13 very quality applications were sent in to Outward Bound International. Applicants are judged in four categories: innovation, fulfilling the mission of OBI, effectiveness, and replicability. The top two are chosen each year to receive an award which includes a trip to the World Conference to present their programs. Those that the judges found very good but not in the top two receive honorable mention awards. This year's awards go to Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound for their comprehensive school reform and Outward Bound Singapore for their SPARKc Tunnel. See below for a short summary or for detailed information on these innovative programs click to our member pages (If you are not a member, please contact your Executive Director or OBI for the password). Also see our Honorable Mentions--those schools that reached the top five.

Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound School:
In 1992, as a part of a national urban education initiative, and with material assistance from faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and major funding from the New American Schools Development Corporation , Outward Bound USA started Expeditionary Learning. Expeditionary Learning is not just a program in schools. It is a framework for organizing whole schools differently and teaching differently. It provides intensive and ongoing professional development and technical assistance to whole faculties over a period of years to enable them to make positive changes in instructional practice and school culture. It works. Expeditionary Learning changes schools into communities of character and high achievement.

To change the nature and quality of instruction as well as the schedule, calendar, and culture of schools, Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound offers kindergarten through twelfth grade faculties an intensive, highly regarded, multi-year program of professional development and on-site technical assistance. Expeditionary Learning schools emphasize rigorous academics embedded in multi-dimensional projects called learning expeditions. Learning expeditions focus on particular themes, combine several academic disciplines and are tied to state and district academic standards. They involve fieldwork, service and adventure, and culminate in celebrations of quality work through performances and presentations to audiences that go beyond the classroom.

Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound began to be implemented in 10 public schools in the 1993-94 school year. Nine years later, in 2001-02, there are 115 Expeditionary Learning Schools, including 9 of the original 10, in 29 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Expeditionary Learning is now a widely applied and tested design and enabling program of professional development and technical assistance for comprehensive reform. Several independent research and evaluation organizations, including the Academy of Educational Development, the Rand Corporation and the American Institutes of Research, have found that students in our schools have better attendance, do better work and score better on standardized tests. Parent participation is greater than in traditional schools. One parent, a professor at Denver University, describes Expeditionary Learning as "education for the gifted, applied to everyone." The quality and consistency of our program has improved as the scale has increased.

Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound is cited in the (U.S.) Federal Comprehensive School Reform legislation as a model of the kind of design and organization that Congress had in mind when the Comprehensive School Reform Act was written. By the 2003-2004 school year, we plan to increase our network of schools from the current 115 to approximately 145.

Click Here for more on ELOB

Outward Bound Singapore SPARKc Tunnel/Cave/Maze:
SPARKc @ Marine Parade (SPARKc, for short) is a new adventure training centre for children in Singapore. As a centre with facilities and training programmes that have been specially customised for children aged 10 to 14, it is the first-of-its-kind in the Asian region.

In the development of SPARKc, it was faced with the problem of how to minimize the noise generated by a remote-controlled model-car circuit situated next to the campsite from affecting its training programmes. The circuit is operated by an external organisation. The initial proposal by the Project Architect was to erect a wooden wall to buffer the sound from the circuit. The structure would need to be at least 2 metres high, half a metre wide and 50 metres in length to be effective. The OBS Project Team brainstormed and designed an Artificial Tunnel/Cave/Maze (TCM) Initiative using sea-containers to replace the sound barrier wall. The height and width of the sea containers are sufficient to buffer the noise from the circuit, where four containers are connected together, totalling 52-metre in length. The construction cost of the sound barrier wall and the TCM is about the same. However, in the latter, the initiative serves a dual function of buffering sound and, at the same time, a functional activity for SPARKc's programmes.

Different built-in obstacles are designed into the containers to simulate various challenging environments that the children have to crawl, squeeze and find their way through. Participants move in groups of four to eight in the dark, with only limited light sticks to share amongst them. The limited light sticks require the members to work with one another as they negotiate the turns and climbs required in the initiative. Powerful learnings and team concepts are highlighted in the activity as the team moves through the various segments in the containers.

The aim of the Artificial Tunnel/Cave/Maze (TCM) Initiative is to complement SPARKc's main objective in providing enriching leadership and character development programmes aimed at fostering independence and interdependence life skills in children. Designed as a group activity, the TCM aims to foster interdependence lifeskills such as understanding the value of teamwork, learning to care for one another and inculcating the importance of individual responsibility and commitment in achieving the team goal.

As shown below on the results of the end-of-course evaluation conducted between May 2001 and March 2002, the TCM is the most well received activity with 40% of the students identifying it as the most impactful learning activity to them.

Click Here for more on SPARKc

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Outward Bound Hong Kong's Joint SKO Life Skills Project:
The Joint SKO Life Skills Project is a co-operative venture between The Samaritans, Kely Support Group and Outward Bound Hong Kong, with the focus being the prevention of youth suicide in Hong Kong. The SKO programme aims to train secondary school children in a variety of life skills and an understanding of the processes of peer support and active listening so that they are able to return to their school community and set up peer support projects aimed at the prevention of youth suicide. Since 1998 the joint SKO life skills project has been reaching out to schools in the Cantonese speaking community, with the development into the English speaking community in 2001 (ESKO). The programme lasts for six months and has a sequenced stage of workshops including a residential OB course aimed at the students developing the life skills and confidence needed to run their school based projects, focused around the issue of youth suicide prevention and peer support. The workshops are run during weekends and the residential component takes place during either the April or October school holidays, after which the students return to school to complete the project development phase with support from SKO staff members.

"Most of all I have learnt about the difference we can make in the lives of other people, even those who are not suicidal, simply by being supportive and listening" ESKO Student 2001

Thompson Island Outward Bound Education Center's Connecting With Courage Program:
Connecting With Courage (CWC) and Passages courses are intense, two-week, single-gender summer expeditions for adolescent girls and boys. They are designed to enhance self-esteem, communication and team-building skills at an age when adolescents typically experience a significant decline in self-esteem. CWC and Passages activities include sailing, backpacking, climbing, canoeing, artistic expression, and community service. The programs are designed utilizing the most recent research on gender education and focus on themes such as voice, choice and self-esteem. The programs are designed for students ages 12-14 and integrate artistic elements as well as the standard physical challenges ropes courses, sailing, hiking, climbing, etc.

"This opportunity has been wonderful. I came here timid, shy, and afraid to open up. Now I am laughing outright and not caring what people think. This has been a life-altering experience for me." Rebecca, Summer 2000 CWC graduate

Outward Bound Australia's Sydney Unmasked Program:
Sydney Unmasked was a city-based program designed to explore new and different ways of impelling people outside their comfort zones using a novel environment.This particular program was designed for participants attending the Outward Bound Australia International Symposium. However the objectives are applicable to a wide range of clients, in particular corporate or open enrolment programs. This was the beginning of a physical, sensory, creative, social and cultural journey through Sydney to discover the elusive and multifaceted “Sydney Culture” and, an even greater challenge, their own identity as a group within the cities lifeblood. This program was built using the dramaturgy wave method used in the Czech Republic programs. As such, it is very difficult to provide an outline of the program, as its success lies not so much in the individual activities, but in the layering of themes, using red threads (reoccurring motifs) and the sequencing of the experiences; the building of a drama. The program was very fluid and flexible, moving and growing with the group and depending on what happened next, which in the city, can be very unpredictable.

“A hit! Excellent urban-based course providing all the challenges needed for a personal/team development course in a city. A good variety of both longer team challenges, multi-task exercises and personal challenges.” Ross Wallace, Lead Instructor, OB Wales

Outward Bound Romania's Rural Community Development Program:
It is more difficult for rural communities to have access to information and sources of assistance for development. The young people there are willing and able to help their communities but lack the knowledge and guidance to actively make a difference. In 1996, the first community development program created by OBRO was called "School of Democracy." Since then variations of this kind of program have always been part of OBRO's curriculum. The program structure has changed a lot based on the feedback from participants and the experiences of the instructors. The program has the following themes:
- establishing an organization (organizational and legislative background)
¨ youth leadership
¨ proposal writing
¨ teambuilding
¨ strategic planning
¨ human resource management and organizational management.

The young rural leaders chosen for this program actively participated in seminars and courses organized by Outward Bound Romania. Additionally, during the project period, they organized and set up their own community projects and organizations. These projects were supervised and supported by Outward Bound Romania. Results from the project include:

-Youth leaders and community organizers are developed through these teambuilding, leadership, community building, fundraising and organizational management activities and exercises.
¨ NGO's are created in rural communities. These organizations, in collaboration with other NGO's and local authorities carry forward the community building process.
¨ Over 10 NGO's have been created and are still active in their communities today. That means far more than the original 150 participants have benefitted from this program.
¨ Participants from the Rural Development program have gone on to use their organizational skills in other new NGO's in Romania where they have been able to pass on the skills and lessons they learned in this program.

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