News & Press Releases
ICS Kids Are Climbing the Wall!
In mid-October 2007, ICS Facilities Manager Jim Miller put the finishing touches on the installation of an unusual piece of physical education equipment along the east wall of the school gym. Since then, students have been literally climbing the wall. And according to our physical education teachers, they've been enjoying every minute of it!
"It's awesome," says Physical Education teacher Mrs. Stanton. "The kids thoroughly enjoy it. The climbing wall pushes them physically and mentally."
Mrs. Stanton's Physical Education teaching colleague, Mrs. McNeely, adds, "The kids initially didn't realize how much work and strength it takes. They're really excited about the climbing wall, and we are, too, because it addresses all the components of fitness."
Manufactured by Everlast Climbing Industries, the climbing wall measures 8-feet high by 40-feet wide. Age-suitable degrees of difficulty challenge students from K-8; multi-colored hand- and footholds show the way. Notably, students are never more than a few feet off the ground as they traverse the wall. Therefore, students have no need for ropes or harnesses or other specialty safety equipment. As an added safety feature, 2-inch thick pads line the gym floor to soften any falls. (The pads also double as cushions along the gym walls during basketball games.) Of course, student wall climbers are always under a teacher's supervision.
Although the kids climb the wall primarily in a lateral fashion, the wall nonetheless challenges their Spiderman-like abilities. To finish the climb, students must negotiate obstacles such as hoops and poles, making them demonstrate their climbing dexterity as they stretch sidelong over, under, and through the obstacles. "They really love it," Mrs. McNeely concludes.
The climbing wall was acquired through a grant from The Challenge Foundation.