Project Challenge is a dynamic teamwork and leadership program for our Middle School students. It elevates students, figuratively and literally, challenging them to work together to accomplish tasks and explore together to better understand the nature of human relationships.
Beginning in Sixth Grade, students find themselves climbing the high ropes in Meadowbrook's Grinker Gym. At the core of this effort is:
Teamwork and its many elements — communication, collaborative planning, decision-making, and how to give and receive feedback. Project Challenge is more than just a high ropes course. The activities, ropes course and others, require students to plan and work cooperatively, an important skill for success in today's society.
Human Relationships — both interpersonal and whole group — are emphasized in Seventh Grade, as students are challenged to build an inclusive atmosphere characterized by trust, mutual support and appreciation of others. Human relationships are studied through historical events, diversity, and personal experiences, with activities that challenge students to help them create and maintain an inclusive, supportive environment.
Personal Growth drives the eighth-grade year as individual students set goals and work towards accomplishing them within the inclusive, supportive environment created the previous year. Students are given opportunities to learn about themselves. Living a value-centered life is emphasized, and students all write personal mission statements as a culminating activity. All the skills learned since the start of Sixth Grade — the technical skills of climbing, spotting, belaying, and the interpersonal skills of problem-solving and peer support — help our eighth grade students meet or exceed their individual goals prior to graduation.
