Meet the People Behind The Adventures with Frisbee Rob

The Adventures with Frisbee Rob may feature some of history’s greatest minds, but there are also a couple of very curious people working behind the scenes.

What began with one unexpected comment from a kid at a MiniStix Hockey Camp in May 2023 has grown into a much bigger idea: create stories that kids genuinely want to read, then give teachers meaningful ways to use those stories in the classroom.

That is where Frisbee Rob McLeod and educator Kim Goosen come in.

We approach the project from different directions, but we share a similar philosophy: kids learn when they are curious, when they are allowed to try, when mistakes become part of the process, and when learning feels like something they get to participate in rather than something simply delivered to them.

Our goal is ambitious.

We want to bring The Adventures with Frisbee Rob into classrooms across Alberta.

And eventually, far beyond.

Rob McLeod – better known as Frisbee Rob – is a motivational speaker, world-record-holding frisbee athlete, educator, and lifelong experimenter who has spent years using frisbee to get kids moving, thinking, trying, and discovering what they are capable of.

Through school assemblies, physical education workshops, residencies, and presentations, Rob has worked with more than 700 schools, delivered more than 8,500 workshops, and reached more than 300,000 students.

His approach has never been about being perfect.

It is about trying.

“Watch me try.”

That simple idea runs through much of Rob’s work. Whether he is attempting a world record, learning a new skill, teaching a student to throw for the first time, or creating something that has never existed before, the willingness to try comes first.

So does effort.

“Best effort always.”

Rob believes that failure is not the opposite of success. Often, it is where learning begins. A throw that goes the wrong direction, an experiment that sinks, or a flying machine that refuses to fly can all reveal something worth noticing.

That philosophy became the foundation for The Adventures with Frisbee Rob.

Frisbee provides the playful connection between Rob and the Great Minds he meets, but it also becomes a tool for exploring motion, flight, balance, forces, problem-solving, history, language, and movement.

As Rob likes to say:

“When a ball dreams, it dreams that it’s a frisbee.”

The stories invite kids to look at familiar things differently, ask questions they may never have considered, and see where those questions lead.

And when the answer is not immediately obvious?

Let the Wind guide you.

Kim Goosen is an educator of 14 years and currently works as a Consultant, Arts & Culture, English as an Additional Language with the Calgary Catholic School District, after previously serving as a K–6 New Curriculum English Language Arts and Literature Consultant.

She is beginning her Master of Education at the University of New Brunswick and is passionate about literacy and the power of picture books to ignite curiosity, spark conversation, and open the door to deeper learning.

Kim believes the best learning experiences give children room to have fun, ask questions, take chances, make mistakes, and discover answers through their own thinking and experiences.

Her classroom motto captured that perfectly:

“Let’s take chances, make mistakes and get messy!”

It is a philosophy she continues to carry with her today while working with schools across her district.

That perspective is especially important to The Adventures with Frisbee Rob. The stories are meant to be imaginative and entertaining first, but the questions inside them create opportunities for teachers to move naturally into meaningful learning.

Outside of education, Kim brings that same curiosity and willingness to push beyond what feels comfortable to running.

She is a Boston Marathoner currently working toward completing the Abbott World Marathon Majors and earning her 7 Star Medal.

Whether she is in a classroom or standing on a starting line, Kim believes curiosity, courage, and a willingness to try something new can take you a long way.

One of the most important decisions we have made with this project is that the stories need to work as stories.

We do not want kids to feel like they are reading a lesson disguised as an adventure.

Rob might meet Isaac Newton and wonder why a frisbee does not fall immediately. He might experiment with Archimedes to understand why a stone sinks while a frisbee floats. He might watch Leonardo da Vinci learn more from a flying machine that fails than from one that works.

The learning grows naturally from what happens.

For teachers who want to take those questions further, each adventure is being paired with Alberta Curricular Connections for Kindergarten through Grade 6 across five core subject areas:

• English Language Arts & Literature
• Mathematics
• Physical Education
• Science
• Social Studies

The goal is to help teachers take one engaging story and discover multiple ways to extend it through conversation, investigation, writing, movement, experimentation, and play.

Our first goal is Alberta.

We want teachers across the province to be able to open an adventure on Monday morning and have both a story their students will enjoy and practical curricular connections they can use immediately.

But Alberta is only the beginning.

As the project grows, we hope to develop curriculum-specific resources for British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, and other Canadian provinces before eventually expanding into the United States and classrooms around the world.

The curriculum will change from place to place.

The bigger idea will not.

Help kids become curious.

Give them permission to try.

Let them make mistakes.

Encourage them to notice what happened.

And then ask another question.

Because the goal of The Adventures with Frisbee Rob is not simply to teach kids what great minds discovered.

It is to help kids discover the Great Mind within themselves.

Keep wondering. Keep trying. Be your best. Let the Wind guide you.