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Team Building For Business Groups

Click here for School & Youth Groups Experiential Learning

Research shows that people are more receptive to change and learning when they are having fun. Let Terrapin Adventures guide your team on a safe, fun filled day of exploration. We can lead your team on a memorable half-day or full day program designed to:

• Get participants to know each other better
• Build trust and confidence among team members
• Improve communication
• Learn how to focus and be productive in a chaotic/stressful environment
• Stimulate creative problem solving
• Embrace change
• Constructively deal with conflict & constraints
• Collaborate effectively

Please call our office so we can create the perfect team building experience to meet your needs.

Why Choose Terrapin Adventures?

Terrapin Adventures understands business. Our convenient facility is like no other in Maryland plus we can go off-campus as needed. Our facilitators have many years of experience running companies and guiding groups. We take the lessons learned in the field and apply these to your workforce for meaningful outcomes. Your event will be personalized to your company's needs. You will get real value from your half or full day program.

Why It Works?

Our programs breakdown barriers, so your staff begins to work as a team and become more efficient workers and happier employees. Through carefully designed uplifting activities, bridges to communication are built, cooperation is improved, and creative problem solving is unleashed. Participants will be encouraged to bend boundaries and extend comfort zones to expand their potential. TA operates under the concept of "challenge by choice" so rest assured that team members will not be asked to do things that they are uncomfortable with.

Team Building Process

We first have a conversation with you to better understand the group's history, makeup and goals for the day. Then we develop a customized proposal with different options to choose from. Prior to your team building event, our lead facilitator will call you to go over more specific ideas to make sure we have a successful program.

Examples of Activities & Sample Itineraries For Corporate Groups

• 8:00am -8:30am. Continental Breakfast or full hot breakfast.
• 8:30am- 9:30am. Ice breaking activities done in both large and small groups to warm up group and set the tone for a fun day. These exercises can be done indoors or outside. Often, the group lays out its goals for the day through an exercise called a full value contract.
• 9:30am- 12pm. Group is broken down into smaller teams of 10-16 people. Each group then is led by a specially trained facilitator through our low ropes challenge course. Using props and our low course elements, the team will engage in 3-6 low ground based challenge elements. The exercises are adjusted based on the goals of the group and their physical abilities.
• 12pm- 12:30pm. Lunch with the facilitators. Lunch options include a gourmet box lunch, pizza, or a full hot buffet with sides, salads, fruit, desert and beverages. Vegetarian options available. During lunch we take the pulse of the group and discuss what they liked and didn't like to make adjustments for the afternoon. Option to extend the lunch period and incorporate seated massages with our on-site wellness center partner, Good Life Wellness Center.
• 12:30pm- 4:30pm. After lunch, we take on more complex challenges on the low course and add barriers and constraints to mimic real life. Then there are a number of options to take team building to the next level. Samples of afternoon programs include:
  • High Adventure Team Building. We employ our Zip Line, Giant Swing, High Ropes Course and Climbing Tower to create an exciting venue. Members challenge themselves and team members to get outside their comfort zone and try new things. At each venue, team members will be actively involved in spotting, belaying, and supporting their teammates.
  • Terrapin Olympics. We engage your group to compete in a series of friendly and unusual team building events we call our Terrapin Olympics. Using a shot-gun start, each team will rotate through some wacky and challenging events that will stimulate communication, creativity, and team work. At the end of the rotations, we tally up the scores and share the results with your team for bragging rights and prizes.
  • Adventure Impossible. Your mission if you choose to accept it, will be full of action packed fun. First your team must navigate the 40 foot tall high ropes course and collect clues at each level. Next your group must test its speed, agility, and team-work using our labyrinth puzzle, pipeline obstacle course and Australian trolleys to collect additional clues. Then onto the Terrapin Tower where team members must scale the climbing tower and be lowered by their group to retrieve the final clues. The group must solve the mystery before they can move on. Finally you must escape via the the Giant Swing before your mission is complete.
  • Scavenger Treasure Hunt. The group will work together using hand held GPS units to find a variety of items in the woods.
  • Builder Challenge. Builder Challenge. Teams work to build an item and test it. Examples include building a protective cage for an egg that will be dropped from successive heights. Another project is for the team to build a boat out of cardboard and duct tape strong enough to hold a person and go across the river.
• 4:30pm- 5pm. Bring group back together to debrief the day's events, lessons learned and how they apply to work and personal life. We try to use the recently unleashed creative problem solving to recommend solutions to problems/barriers at their company.
• 5pm- 7pm. Post team building activities include a happy hour at Rams Head Tavern next door. Rejuvenate your spirits with food and alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages and appetizers.

Our Facilities & Amenities

Terrapin Adventures Team Building Programs will provide comfortable indoor meeting space, safe and exhilarating outdoor courses, healthy high-energy food and clean modern rest rooms. We have arrangements with local caterers to provide simple to elegant meals during your program. We also can incorporate wellness/spa programs to complement the team building activities to treat your staff to some well deserved pampering for a day they won’t forget. We can handle groups up to 200 people. We use the Manor House, the Savage Mill Great Room and Rams Head Tavern which are on site and wonderful spaces.

Our Facilitators

Our team is led by Chief Adventure Officer Matt Baker. Matt has been running businesses of all sizes for over 30 years. He understands how to improve profitability and employee performance and has a successful track record of improving the bottom line. His specialty is taking lessons learned in the field and applying them to help your company solve a problem or improve performance. Matt has traveled the world seeking adventure from the mountains of New Zealand, to the Serengeti plains of Africa, to the cloud forests of Costa Rica. We employ a variety of professional team builders so we can choose the perfect facilitator to meet your needs and budget.

Off Site Team Building Programs

Terrapin Adventures can bring our portable equipment to you. We can design 2- 6 hour programs that will energize your team. We can come to your facility or lead your staff at an off-site meeting facility like a hotel or conference center.

Sample Team Building Exercises:

To see a sampling of some of the team building exercises we use at Terrapin Adventures, click here.

Click here to send a Team Building Inquiry Form.

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School & Youth Groups Experiential Learning

Our youth adventure programs build confidence and fitness, providing lessons not learned in traditional classrooms. As they enjoy the great outdoors, our guides will entertain and educate your group about the local flora and fauna, the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the forest, local history, and what we can do to protect the environment.

Why Choose Terrapin Adventures?

Terrapin Adventures understands the pressure kids are under today. Striving to compete in school, sports, music and extra curricular activities can be stressful. Our facility is like no other in Maryland plus we can go off-campus as needed. Our team leaders have many years of experience running working with school age groups. Your program will be personalized to your groups needs.

Why It Works?

Our programs focus on fun and having kids work together to learn. Through carefully designed uplifting activities, bridges to communication are built, cooperation is improved, and creative problem solving is unleashed. Participants will be encouraged to bend boundaries and extend comfort zones to expand their potential. TA operates under the concept of “challenge by choice” so rest assured that team members will not be asked to do things that are not comfortable.

Examples of Activities

9:30am- 2:30pm After some icebreaker activities, students will be divided into sub-groups of approximately 12-15 participants. We require a minimum 1:15 chaperone to student ratio. Each group will be lead through five stations as time allows including:

• Low Ropes Course Challenges: Most of these games/exercises are on the ground or just one foot off the ground. These exercises are focused on having the team engage in creative problem solving; working through conflicts, dealing with ambiguity and disagreements; and developing and executing a plan of action. These exercises include both mental and minor physical challenges. These ground based elements involve loads of fun while your group solves the various challenges including getting through the Spiders Web, swinging across the Nitro Crossing on a Tarzan swing, balancing on a cable crossing as you get everyone across the Mohawk walk, figuring out how to negotiate the balance beam on Zip Zag, synchronizing your efforts on the Australian Trolley or playing any number of games that our creative guides come up with that meet the skill level and interest of your group. At the end of each exercise, we debrief with the group so they understand how these experiences relate and can be used in their personal life. We operate on a challenge by choice premise so if a participant is uncomfortable with working on an element, they can opt out and participate in other ways.
• High Ropes Challenge Course: Try all 18 traverses with names like Heebie Jeebie, Islands in the Sky, Raider Bridge and Wobbly Log. Students will gain confidence and support each other.
• Terrapin Tower: Students go up and down all 12 ways of our climbing tower with its vertical play pen. They will help each other scale the 43 ft. tower.
• Zip Line: Conquer all fears as they glide through the forest on our 330 ft. zip line.
• Giant Swing: Experience 2 G's of force as up to 3 students at a time get lifted 40 feet in the air before swooshing through the canopy.

Students can bring their own non-perishable lunch and eat on our outside deck or inside during their visit in their sub-groups. During lunch we will lead discussions on environmental concepts like Recycling, Reducing Your Carbon Footprint and Leave No Trace Camping. As an option, we can provide a pizza lunch or bag lunch at additional cost.

Bonus Features

• Chaperones participate for free as time allows
• We provide a digital photo of your group to remember your unique experience at Terrapin Adventures.

Add-on Options per person

• Pizza Lunch $8.00
• Picnic Lunch $12.00
• Health Picnic Lunch $14.00
• Gourmet Box Lunch $18.00

Pricing subject to change and we can customize a program especially for you.

Our Facilities

Terrapin Adventures Experiential Learning Programs will provide comfortable indoor meeting space, safe and exhilarating outdoor courses, healthy high-energy food and clean modern rest rooms. We can accommodate up to 125 children during the day. Call for pricing.

Call our office to talk to one of our group/party planners and check date availability or fill out the inquiry form by clicking here.