Outdoor School Connects Students with Nature [VIDEO]
/
Ferguson Elementary sixth-graders from Jodi Beanland’s class are far from home. They’re spread across a beach on the Oregon coast, hands dug in the sand, searching for sand crabs.
“I’ve got one!” Triston Leach, 12, shouts. He holds up a tiny, squabbling creature that looks like a miniaturized monster. Other students gather around to check see. As they’re watching, ocean waters lick at their feet as the waves moves in and out.
Triston and his classmates are at outdoor school, a Klamath County School District tradition for sixth graders. He said outdoor school gave him a new perspective on learning.
“You get to go out and actually see it, learn about it, touch it or smell it,” Triston Said. “Sometimes when you’re in the classroom, you don’t get a lot of opportunities to see it, or touch it, or smell it or look at it, for real.”
Though the Klamath County School District has sent students to outdoor school for 20 years, this year for the first time, the Oregon Legislature specifically funds outdoor school statewide. Voters approved Measure 99 in 2016, which established an outdoor school state lottery fund.
At the Klamath County School District, about 500 KCSD sixth-graders went to outdoor school this spring, said Jennifer Hawkins, elementary curriculum director. The KCSD will get reimbursed $97,000 for outdoor school, which equates to less than $200 per student for
transportation, room and board for four days, and high quality education from dawn till dusk.
Prior to this year, schools were required to raise funds to attend outdoor school. That often meant candy drives, cookie dough sales and grant applications.
Students from 11 KCSD elementary schools attended outdoor school. Students from Henley, Ferguson, Peterson, Keno and Merrill elementary schools went to Camp Westwind. Students from Bonanza, Chiloquin and Stearns elementary schools went to Camp Gray with OMSI, Malin Elementary students went to Hancock Field Station near John Day, Gilchrist Elementary students went to Camp Tamarack near Bend, and Shasta Elementary students went to Klamath Outdoor Science School.
Carrie Heuberger is a site supervisor at Camp Westwind Outdoor School, where Triston and his classmates went for a week in late May. Heuberger is better known by her camp name, “Acer.” She estimates Camp Westwind hosts thousands of students each year.
Each group of students spend four days at Camp Westwind. In any given week, between 85 and 100 students come to camp, Acer said. Westwind runs outdoor school camps for eight weeks in the fall and 20 weeks in the spring. About 14 to 20 high school volunteers are camp counselors during any week-long camp, and Westwind has a staff of about 10 people.
Camp Westwind is a place students can get out of the classroom to experience learning in nature.
“If I didn’t I would just be sitting home going to school for seven hours,” said Ferguson Elementary student Hadyn Burk, 12. “But instead I get to be here, learn and see amazing things.”
Expanding Horizons
For some students in the Klamath County School District, outdoor school is their first experience being far away from home. Even though they grew up in Oregon, some had never been to the coast or the high desert of John Day.
“I believe it is incredibly important for our students to study ecosystems outside of those found in their local community,” Hawkins said.
Westwind students study tidal pools, coastlines, estuaries and a temperate rain forest. Hancock Field Station students learn about geology.
“These, including local camps, are simply experiences that the students would not get inside the school,” Hawkins said. “It is also important for students to interact as citizens of a different learning environment.”
“We really try to take advantage of our natural spaces,” Acer said. “That’s why our field studies are designed to fit subject matter within the ecosystem.”
“We stay here 24 hours a day,” Hadyn said. “There’s so much more to see and do: the beach, the forest, the tide pools and the estuary.”
“I think it’s really pretty because it’s my first time going to the coast,” said Ferguson Elementary student Christen Davis, 11. “I like it because we got to go on hikes and it’s really fun.”
“Many of our high poverty students do not get the opportunity to see or experience locations beyond their home town,” Hawkins said. “It has been interesting to hear of students that have never even traveled out of the Klamath Falls area.”
For others, it meant being away from family for the first time and meeting students from far-away schools.
“Outdoor school is really fun,” Triston said. “It’s really relaxing. You get to meet new people. Some people in your cabin are from different schools or lived in different places. You get to learn about new people.”
“I get to share a cabin with many other friends,” Hadyn agreed. “Some of my friends and new people I get to make friends with.”
No Ordinary Classroom
A typical day at Camp Westwind is filled with activity from dawn to dusk. Students, counselors and staff wake up and head to breakfast first thing. Next is field studies. Students go to the estuary, the beach or the forest to study for five hours, eating a picnic lunch in the field.
“They learn how to ask questions. How to observe. How to imagine what an investigation would look like,” Acer said. “They can feel the wonder of what it is to be a scientist. I don’t know the answer to this question, but now I actually care and am curious.”
As the week goes on, students observe the natural world in a different way, or ask more in-depth questions, use their imaginations to come up with scientific tests, or run their own experiments.
“It’s exciting to see all those lightbulbs turn on during field study,” Acer said.
“Outdoor school is different from my regular school because you’re more active with nature,” said Ferguson Elementary student Kelcee Nichols, 12. “I’m learning lots of nature stuff I had no idea about. I didn’t know a mussel could get this big! It’s just really different.”
“You get to have more time outside and explore,” Christen said. “At school you’re always in this little classroom and crammed in there learning math. Here we don’t learn anything besides nature and I think that’s really neat.”
In the afternoon they return to the camp for class meetings and afternoon recreation activities. They meet for dinner, then head to the campfire for evening activities.
“There is a lot more activities and a lot more hands-on,” Ferguson Elementary student Tamsen Farris, 12, said. She noted there is not a lot of downtime at outdoor school. “There’s already some other fun activities waiting for it. It’s a good thing because there’s a lot of different things to do.”
Over the week , Acer and the other staff see students get comfortable with a new place, new people and new community. Around the campfire, students and counselors sing and perform skits, getting many sixth-graders out of their shells and having fun.
“They really start to relax a little bit. They are able to move and learn andenjoy the natural world,” Acer said. “They’re a lot less self-conscious, a lot more brave and willing to try new things.”
Lessons in Nature
This year Hawkins accompanied her son, who attends Peterson Elementary, to outdoor school. It was an eye-opening experience for her as a mom.
“The activities that my son participated in are above anything I have provided as a parent,” Hawkins said. “We have never found ghost shrimp and discussed symbiotic relationships, looked at erosion patterns and preventative measures in estuaries while building a model, or picked up rough-skin newts and talked about why dill weed is salty.”
Students reveled in new experiences, too.
“My favorite activity has been the seal walk, because you get to walk by the waves on the coast,” Christen said. “Wow, those big waves are really pretty. And wow! Oh they must be powerful.”
Tamsen liked the hike through the coastal rain forest. “It was a really long hike and it was all uphill,” she said. “We got to look over the ocean. It was kind of mysterious. I didn’t know how far it would go.”
The beach was Kelcee’s favorite part of outdoor schools. “It just makes me feel calmer and more relaxed,” she said. “I just love the beach.”
Press release provided from Samantha Tipler, Publish Relations, Klamath County School District.