Intermediate/Middle School
IMS Expeditions
The Intermediate/Middle School (IMS) Expeditions program is a series of month-long events designed to offer challenge, adventure, and personal growth through activities that require skill and practice and take place in natural venues, sometimes in remote locations.
PEAK Curriculum Connections
Outdoor Education
All students in grades 5-8 take a 6-week Outdoor Education (OE) class. OE curriculum is consistent with age-level interest and ability. Class objectives include the development of positive leadership qualities like effective communication, teamwork and self-confidence as well as the development of skills related to paddling, climbing, biking, orienteering, archery and fly fishing.
Leadership Dynamics
As a part of their Outdoor Education class, students in 8th grade spend time learning how to PERFORM and LEAD a specific set of skills related to camping and backpacking opportunities that they will encounter on their 8th grade class trip in May.
The Whitewater Kayaking Expedition is a program designed specifically for IMS students who are serious about whitewater paddling. Whitewater Kayaking Expedition takes place during the month of September. Students practice basic whitewater kayaking skills as sessions move from the Heathwood Pond to class I and II rapids on the Saluda River. Paddlers learn paddle strokes, self- and team-rescue techniques, and river reading skills. The Expedition is limited to 10 paddlers. Cost for the Whitewater Kayaking program is $150 (not including the cost of the paddling and adventure trip to the NOC Festival).
The Climbing Expedition is a program designed specifically for IMS students who are serious about all aspects of climbing (rock faces, climbing walls, ropes courses, climbing competitions...). Climbing Expedition takes place during the month of October. Students practice basic climbing skills on the Alpine Tower, on the Odyssey Course, and on the Climbing Wall at Heathwood, and on the 50-foot rock climbing wall at Stronghold Athletic Club. Climbers learn skills related to climbing, belaying, and high angle rescue. The Climbing Expedition is limited to 12 climbers. Cost is $150 (including the cost of the day trip to a rock face in North Carolina).
The Mountain Biking Expedition is a program designed specifically for IMS students who are serious about Mountain Biking. Students ride local trails to improve technique and stamina. Cost for the Mountain Biking program is $25 per biking event. Bikers provide their own bikes and helmets (PEAK has a limited supply of bikes and helmets to loan if necessary).
MOUNTAIN
BIKING EXPEDITION
Information and Retistration forms
The Camping and Backpacking Expedition is a program designed specifically for IMS students who are serious about camping and backing. Students learn camping and backpacking skills including campsite selection, tent set up, cooking, route finding, selecting and packing a backpack, and basic wilderness first aid. Intermediate and Middle School students each participate in their own expedition: Intermediate School students (5/6th grades) go to Harbison State Forest; Middle School students (7/8th grades) go to Asbury Hills United Methodist Camp, located in the foothills of Upstate SC, for their expedition. Cost for the Camping and Backpacking program is $75 for Intermediate School students and $150 for Middle School students.
CAMPING
and BACKPACKING EXPEDITION
Information and Registration Forms
Archery Expedition is a program designed specifically for IMS students who are serious about archery. Archery Expedition takes place during the month of April. Students practice olympic-style archery with Genesis bows and aluminum arrows on the PEAK Archery Range. Archery Expedition may include competition with archery teams from other schools and competition in the statewide archery meet held in conjunction with the Carolina Sportsman’s Classic at the State Fairground on Friday, March 27. Team size is limited to 12 archers. Cost is $100 and includes all archery equipment (archers may bring their own equipment), and instruction.
The Fishing Expedition is a program designed specifically for IMS students who are serious about fishing. Students learn and practice a variety of freshwater fishing techniques, including spin fishing and fly fishing, catch-and-release practices, fish identification, and fish cleaning from the experts at the Department of Natural Resources. Cost is $25 per day and includes all fishing equipment (students may bring their own equipment) and instruction.
(Class) Trips
During this three-day discovery adventure, students continue their study of South American human culture through a series of adventure activities staged at Camp Gravatt. Students also visit sites of ecological interest in the surrounding area, learning about the local flora and fauna from trained guides at the sites.
Learning about how cultures developed by earlier inhabitants of our continent is the focus of the trip. From the clans of prehistoric man to tribes of Native Americans to colonial civilization, human culture in the western hemisphere has been shaped by man’s interaction with his immediate environment. Cultures develop as individuals interact with one another in their quest to find life’s most basic necessities -- food and shelter. Once a group’s most immediate needs are met, interactions with other groups foster trade and exchange of ideas. In this manner, cultural ideals are established, spread, modified, and enhanced over time.
Students stay in cabins at the Gravatt Adventure and Discovery Center. Camp Gravatt, a member of the Episcopal Camps and Conference Centers, Inc., is located about an hour from Columbia, near Aiken, SC.
While at Gravatt, students participate in initiative activities on low and high ropes course elements designed to foster an understanding of how human dependence on one another leads to cultural development.
The PEAK staff and fifth grade teaching team plan the curriculum and activities. Cost for the Fifth Grade Trip is $230. A limited amount of financial aid is available.
Wednesday-Friday, April 21-23
Information and Registration forms
Click here for a Photo Album of this great trip!
The entire sixth grade class travels to a camp near Awendaw, SC where they begin their search for the answer to the essential question How does natural history influence human culture?
Throughout the year sixth graders study South Carolina history. During the trip students learn about coastal ecology that has shaped the low country of the state by traveling by ferry through the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge to Bull Island, and visiting Sewee Environmental Education Center. Students learn of low country human culture by visiting Hobcaw Barony near Georgetown where they learn about life before the Civil War, searching for artifacts in Friendfield Village, one of several slave villages at Hobcaw. Students tour Hampton Plantation, the boyhood home of Archibald Rutledge many of whose stories are read during sixth grade humanities class. A native basketweaver teaches students how to weave sweetgrass baskets while they learn about the historic significance that basketweaving continues to play in the culture of the low country.
The
PEAK staff along with the teachers on the 6th grade team plan the curriculum
and activities. Cost for the Low Country Discovery Trip is $245. A limited
amount of financial aid is available.
Wednesday-Friday, November 4-6
Information
and Registration forms
Click here for a Photo Album of this great trip
The entire seventh grade class travels to Camp Arrowhead in North Carolina where they participate in experiential learning activities designed to foster self-confidence, self-reliance, and team building by taking advantage of a 7th grader's inherent energy, and desire for adventure and challenge.
Climbing, paddling, hiking, camping, adventure racing, and other activities offer physical, intellectual and emotional challenge and opportunity for reflection, group discussion, and journaling.
The PEAK staff and seventh grade teaching team plan the curriculum and activities. Cost for the Heroes Quest Trip is $245. A limited amount of financial aid is available.
Tuesday-Thursday, October 13-15
Information and Registration forms
Click here for a Photo Album of this great trip
The adventure this year is going to hit you in the face like a splash of cold river water – water from the US National Whitewater Center in Charlotte to be exact. For the past few years, 8th graders at Heathwood have started the year with a rafting adventure in an effort to integrate new class members with old ones, build a sense of community among the class, and strengthen individual and collective confidence through a fun and challenging experience.
Students leave from the parking lot at Adventure Base Camp at 8am sharp on Monday, August 24. The group travels to the U.S. National Whitewater Center located in Charlotte, NC. The recently opened Center boast the largest man-made circulating whitewater river in the world and serves as the training venue for our Olympic paddlers. Students should bring a lunch to be eaten at the Center during the day. After rafting our group returns to Heathwood. Students may wish to bring money for snacks at the Whitewater Center. We intend to return to Heathwood between 3-4pm Monday afternoon.
Cost for the Rafting Trip is $75. Payment is due on or before Friday,
August 21 to assure your child a place on the trip. Please send payment
and all completed forms to the attention of the PEAK Program, Heathwood
Hall Episcopal School, 3000 S. Beltline Blvd., Columbia, SC 29201.
Tuesday, August 26
Information and Registration forms
This trip is specifically designed for 8th graders, offering a healthy blend of challenge, adventure, and social interaction. In addition, the experience uniquely combines cultural and historical educational components with an experiential opportuity to practice fundamental elements of leadership.
The trip is four days in length, and, in addition to being outdoor and expeditionary in nature, also offers opportunity for students to learn about the ecological and historical aspects of the Appalanchian Mountains. It offers an opportunity for students to visit cultural locations in downtown Hendersonville, NC. Students are also treated to a live bluegrass music concert by a local bluegrass band while immersed in a fascinating landscape of waterfalls, exposed rock faces, and rare semi-tropical plant and animal life found nowhere else on earth.
Historical, scientific, and cultural spects aside, this experience provides hands-on leadership opportunity with guidance from qualified teachers and instructors, putting into play curricular aspects of the skills and information learned in Outdoor Education classes.
Students travel to Camp Pinnacle in Flat Rock, North Carolina. Pinnacle serves as a base camp for the week. An excursion to Sliding Rock offers an exciting and adventuresome opportunity on the first day.
After a hearty dinner at Camp Pinnacle, students are briefed for their overnight expedition and begin packing their backpacks with personal and group gear needed on the camp out.
After a comfortable night in cabins, students embark on a 2-day/1-night backpacking trip coupled with a geo caching experience. Students are dividied into small groups and individual students in each group put into play the critical skills they have learned throughout the year in Outdoor Education class. These skills include: packing and managing a backpack, meal preparation, campsite management, navigation, and issues related to Leave No Trace (LNT) practices.
Hiking, camping and rock climbing offer physical, emotioal, and intellectual challenge and require courage and healthy risk-taking, which in turn develops confidence and character. After the backpack expedition, students return to base camp for a hot shower and perhaps a well deserved trip into Brevard for ice cream.
Following another delicious dinner Camp Pinnacle, students are treated to live bluegrass music by a local band.
On Friday, students awake from their bunk beds, eat a hearty breakfast, then participate in a series of adventure activities that include rock climbing, mountain biking, fly fishing, or a waterfall hike. After the morning adventure activities, students visit downtown Hendersonville for lunch before returning to Heathwood.
Cost for this trip is $260, plus money for snacks in Brevard on Thursday and lunch in Hendersonville on Friday. For those in need, financial aid is available. Parents should contact Donnie Bain at 231-7745 for applicaiton.
Columbia, SC 29201