Sir Sam's Ski and Bike property echoed with children's laughter Wednesday afternoon as 16 boys took turns launching rockets into the air.

Students from St. Peter's ACHS College School spent May 30 at the Eagle Lake resort, a place that offers all the space kids between grades 4 and 8 need.

"The ice is out at the rink, the snow is off the hills. This is new, different and exciting [for the students]," headmaster Peter Thyrring said.

The small Catholic boys' school based at Pinestone Resort prides itself on doing things differently, choosing to emphasize discipline and a generous amount of physical activity.

It takes them places public school classes don't always go, like mountain biking at Sir Sam's.

"The more we gets kids active, there's more academic success," Thyrring said.

After a morning of cycling, the boys used the expansive property to test their rockets as part of science class.

The goal was to get the cardboard rockets to blast as high in the air as possible.

"Kids used to do this kind of stuff all the time," Thyrring said, noting that now electronics take up kids' time.

Most of the boys brought their own mountain bikes, but 70 per cent of them hadn't been to Sir Sam's to try out the trails.

The resort is going into its fourth summer season with the trails.

There are 20 kilometres of mountain bike paths ranging from easy to hard and instruction and rentals are offered on site.