On Friday, June 7th, the sun finally came out after several days of rain for Medway High School Sophomores, just in time to cap off the end of their outdoor field day. The class had bonded with each other in the year within the IPEC (Interdisciplinary Physical Education Curriculum) program, in which they spent the year getting to know each other with team building and physically challenging activites.
“IPEC has been the mainstay for 30+ years of our Wellness curriculum,” says Karl Infanger, of Medway Public Schools. “It started in the 70’s, and it was one of the first adventure programs in the state. We were one of the first schools to have a climbing course/zipline on its grounds.”
According to the Medway High School website, Interdisciplinary Physical Education Curriculum or IPEC was started at the school in 1977 by Harry Romsey, Dick Green, and Dick Nadeau. Through the program, students take part in experiential activities in a supportive, learning environment. The goal is to help students improve self-esteem, set and reach goals, develop decision-making strategies, foster leadership and trust, and learn to work within a group.
Each IPEC class size is kept to under 20 students. Students, then, have the opportunity to work in small groups and feel comfortable trying challenging things. Each IPEC section also has two or three IPEC Leaders as part of the class. The leaders are juniors or seniors that have taken part in IPEC and have demonstrated leadership skills and have been selected by the PE Department as good role models for the sophomores.
Issue Date:
July, 2017
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