After kicking off in Taipei on November 6th, the third day of “2017 Forum for Adventure-Physical Education in Taiwan and New Southern Nations” was hosted on the NPUST campus. The forum was organized under the direction of the Ministry of Education, hosted by National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST), and co-organized by National Taiwan Sport University (NTSU), National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) and Outward Bound Taiwan in coordination with Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy development strategies and the “Adventure Sports and Character Building” project of the MOE Sports Administration.

Over 100 participants took part in the event, including local and international experts on sports and physical fitness, educators, coaches, students and members of the public. The dean of NPUST’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prof. Shi-Jer Lou, who chaired the forum, stated “NPUST’s campus, which has been richly endowed by nature, has enabled us to develop our sports education in a unique way and has given us a special place in the country. And today, we are grateful for this opportunity and offer a special thanks to the guests from Singapore, New Zealand and Indonesia for being here and adding to the discussion – we expect this exchange will help put new emphasis on the importance of physical education.”

The Forum included a session for a special presentation and a session for keynote lectures by international guests. During the first session, Professor Chung-chi Wu of NTNU’s Department of Civic Education and Leadership presented on “the Current Situation and Future of Taiwan’s Adventure Sports Development”. Prof. Wu quoted many adventure educators, pointing out that the health of modern people is not what it used to be, and young people are losing their enthusiasm. He hopes to use adventure activities in outdoor contexts to meet educational objectives; that by directly taking part in challenges, adventures and new growing experiences students can learn social skills and build character, and educational goals on individual growth and development can be achieved. He also hopes that physical education programs will foster a habit of exercising among young people, emphasizing good sportsmanship, teamwork and the importance of developing both “brains and brawn”.

NPUST created an outdoor adventure facility in 2006, with high elevation challenges including a giant swing, assault rope bridge, and ball jump, as well as ground level ones such as the TP Shuffle, Whale Watch and Hole in One. In the afternoon, an adventure sport workshop was organized at the NPUST outdoor adventure facilities, with a campus orientation and rope challenge scheduled to give participants an opportunity to try out the equipment as they designed programs and explored was to integrate concepts of adventure sports into curricular development.

The closing session consisted of open discussions, with the speakers from Taiwan, Singapore, New Zealand and Indonesia interacting with the participants. The rare opportunity was used to address questions related to Taiwan’s adventure education and solicit advice from related experts on the creation of concrete and feasible adventure education strategies. Time was also spent looking at ways in which to coordinate with the Southbound Policy to encourage and promote adventure sports cooperation and academic exchange with other countries.