Extreme Learning

Academics at Adventure High

Following the Indonesian Independent Curriculum (IKM*) students learn all subjects by applying concepts to real life.

For Grades 7 to 12, students learn all subjects while engaging in outdoor adventures. While all students engage in the same adventures, students pick the aspects of each adventure they want to lead, and those they want to support. Each adventure involves multiple and various skills and abilities, and students can choose which skills they want to learn and on which activities they want to focus. As in all things in life, there will be students who prefer to understand the math involved in jumping off a cliff, and others who would prefer to think about what we’ll be eating after we’ve jumped off the cliff. Every perspective is needed to get through an adventure safely and in good spirits. Students will be expected to show higher levels of skill and expertise as they progress through the program.

All activities will combine learning and action in Balinese, Indonesian and English. International students will learn Balinese and Indonesian while engaging in activities, and will be expected to participate in learning and conversing in these languages.

Our primary base is in Desa Bukit Karangasem, but learning will take place where knowledge can be learned. Therefore, while we will build, and plant, and cook at Bali Dharmada School, vocational skills training will be at the locations of skilled artisans and experts with whom our school leaders (who are also community leaders) have relationships.

Life skills are at the centre of Adventure High camping trips that put these skills into practice. We learn these skills in and beyond Karangasem, and potentially even beyond Bali as students learn about environmental and social issues that need to be addressed in other areas of Indonesia (e.g. with orangutans in Kalimantan, komodo dragons in Flores, and with commercial farming efforts displacing indigenous peoples in Papua). Vocational skills training will take place in the workshops of providers in villages that are already delivering cultural tourism or preparing to deliver cultural tourism offerings. Our school will support the development of and continuation of skills that have created and supported Bali and Balinese culture.

BDS Adventure High blends life and vocational skills, as these are often difficult to separate.

While we work with local providers to guide students in learning experiential skills, our school teachers map this learning to academic knowledge in the curriculum. In this way, students have applied understanding of the material that makes up the IKM.

On Saturdays, students who wish to receive Indonesian certification are required to attend classroom-based classes to translate their applied knowledge into the theoretical knowledge required to pass national exams.

* Students wishing to receive national certification will be required to write national exams. Exam preparation takes place every Saturday from 8am-12pm on campus at Bali Dharmada School.

Example term schedule

sample schedule

Every 9-week term is planned in 3-week blocks. Week 1 and Week 3 of every 3-week block follows a “regular” schedule of 8am-4pm, drop-off and pick-up at BDS’s Desa Bukit campus, but Week 2 is our camping adventure week.

During Weeks 1 and 3 of every 3-week block, we will engage in adventures in and around the campus, in preparation of our camping adventures, and putting into practice what we learned while camping. We spend most days off-campus, learning to forge knives at the local blacksmith, or chopping bamboo at a neighbouring farm (with the knives we just made) to make structures at the school. We learn about local plants and how to cook, and help in the community if possible and necessary. Every day is spent actively doing something, on or off campus. Our learning often looks like “work”, and our students understand that work done in support of others brings happiness and fulfillment to everyone. We get dirty and sweaty, and when the work is done, we will swim in the ocean, the river, or in the natural spring to re-energize.

During “regular” weeks, school provides plant-based zero-waste snacks at 9:30 and 3pm; and plant-based zero-waste lunch at 12pm. No outside food is permitted.

During Week 2 of every 3-week block is a camping adventure (Therefore, in a 9-week term, we generally go camping during Week 2, Week 5, and Week 8). Our camping weeks take us further afield, around Bali, to learn about the magical island that allows us to live and learn so much, and to understand how we can support each other and our planet.

Camping adventures are the heart of BDS Adventure High. It is through these shared experiences that our students form strong relationships, where they learn how to provide support to each other, take responsibility for their own and the group’s actions, and how to make a positive impact on the world.

Camping adventure 1 (Week 2): Sacred Bali

This week, students learn about the most sacred places in Bali, following the water (which gives life) from its source in the mountains to its mouth in the ocean, and Balinese practices around gratitude and respect.

  • Day 1: Depart Bali Dharmada School for Gunung Agung Base Camp. Set up at Gunung Agung Base Camp. Camp overnight.
  • Day 2: First day of climbing up Gunung Agung. Set up camp and overnight on Gunung Agung.
  • Day 3: Descend Gunung Agung. Drive to Telaga Surya. Set up camp and overnight.
  • Day 4: Rafting on Telaga Waja. Drive to beach. Set up camp and overnight.
  • Day 5: Reflection and gratitude. Return to Bali Dharmada School by 3pm.

Camping adventure 2 (Week 5): Bali’s microclimates and trees

This week, we visit the different microclimates in Bali - where it’s hot, where it’s cold, where it’s wet, and where it’s dry. We learn about the different trees, what they give us, how to use them as food and medicine, and how to protect them.

  • Day 1: Meet at BDS. Leave for coffee and oranges plantation; overnight in Kintamani
  • Day 2: Mangoes, jackfruit and teak; overnight in Desa Kubu
  • Day 3: West Bali National Park; overnight in West Bali
  • Day 4: Cashews and chocolate: overnight in East Bali
  • Day 5: Coconuts and bananas; return to Bali Dharmada School by 3pm

Camping adventure 3 (Week 8): Jumping into water

This week we explore the rivers that carry life (in the form of water to rice fields) around Bali. We find hidden waterfalls and magical canyons, and understand the many ways that plastic waste and climate change are poisoning the water and damaging the waterways. We put in place actions to undo as much harm as we can.

  • Day 1: Meet at BDS. Leave for north Bali. Basics of canyoning. Visit first waterfall. Overnight in north Bali
  • Day 2: Full day canyoning in Gitgit. Overnight at Gitgit
  • Day 3: Depart for central Bali. Canyoning and swimming in central Bali waterfalls and springs. Overnight in Tabanan.
  • Day 4: Hunt for the best waterfall in Bangli. Overnight in Sidemen
  • Day 5: Tubing, then head back to BDS by 3pm

All meals and snacks are provided for students during camping weeks. All meals are plant-based and zero-waste only. No outside food is permitted.