RUMFORD — What do you get when you mix high school and middle school students with a climbing wall? The answer is simple – a lot of fun and a lot of learning.

That happened in Puiia Gymnasium at Mountain Valley High School with Kristin Tyler’s adventure programming class and students from Mountain Valley Middle School. The MVMS students had a whole school multi-day unit. Students selected sessions to attend and the climbing wall sessions were two-hour blocks.

Before all the learning and fun could happen, the high school students learned, planned lessons, practiced on peers and finally were ready for the younger students.

Junior Shannon Laubauskas explained, “Prior to the class, Mrs. Tyler had us set up a ‘lesson plan’ to show how we were going to lead the middle schoolers on the climbing wall. First she had us think of an ‘ice breaker’ game to get everyone’s attention, we then had to explain the rules of the climbing wall and harness. The day before the class we went over our games that we were going to run with the kids.”

Laubauskas and freshman Sydney Petrie partnered to do the icebreaker. They selected “Birdie on a Perch.”

According to Petrie, “It is a game where you have a partner. One of the partners goes on an inner circle and the other partner goes on the outside circle. The inner circle goes around counter clockwise and the outer circle goes clockwise and they walk around a couple times. Then either Shannon or I yelled ‘Birdie on a Perch.’ The students would have to run and find his/her partner then jump on their back. The last partners to connect would be out.”

“They really enjoyed it and got them ready for the other classmates to explain the harness and climbing wall,” added Laubaskas.

Kayla Drapeau, Cody Cunningham and Brandon Roberts explained how to don a harness and helmet to prepare for the wall climb.

Laubauskas continued, “Once my classmates had explained the climbing wall, the kids got all ready to climb and we had to belay them. They really enjoyed climbing the wall, every one of the kids got into it, they just wanted to keep climbing.”

Tyler led a closing activity to help the middle school students process what they learned and to gain valuable feedback for the high school students.

“Mrs. Tyler had the group circle up and she would place cards on the floor, either showing a word or a picture,” Laubauskas explained. “Each kid from the group had to pick a card and we’d go around and they would explain why they choose that card. I heard many creative things come from the kids, and a lot of it was they really enjoyed climbing the rock wall.”

Despite being in the role of teacher, the high school students had a great time.

Petrie said, “I would definitely do this program with the middle schoolers again because I had a blast. I feel like they were having fun and it’s a great time!”

Tyler noted the educational benefits. “I feel that it is such an incredibly valuable experience for students to have the opportunity to peer-teach and lead others. Practice teaching to your peers is tough, writing lesson plans is foreign and can be viewed as rather boring, debriefing your work can be intimidating. I think most of the students can now see the value of planning and practicing beforehand. I was very impressed with how the students not only took the practice feedback that they received, but actually adjusted for it and made their lessons better.”