Unleash 200-plus sixth-graders in the deep forest and you have … Outdoor School.
That’s where students, teachers and chaperones from Seven Oak and Pioneer schools spent March 15 to 17, getting a taste of the wild life at Camp Tadmor, at the top of McDowell Creek Road.
Actually, it was all quite orderly, but the young teens appeared to be having plenty of fun as they waded in the lake, dissected trout, learned survival skills, tried their hand at archery, and an additional dozen other activities.
DAVID JONES, right, points out various macroinvertebrates to Alivia Holden, left, and Brina Disante.
This was Lebanon’s second year back at Outdoor School after a hiatus and organizer Angela Clegg, watershed education coordinator for the South Santiam Watershed Council, said participation from all Seven Oak sixth-graders more than doubled the 100 students who attended last spring.
Co-leaders Clegg and Lindsey Anderson of the U.S. Forest Service were assisted by a couple of dozen volunteers from various government agencies dealing with the outdoors and some private individuals.
At one stop, fisheries biologist Karen Hans of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife was instructing a dozen students about some commonalities between fish and human anatomy, such as how they both need oxygen, though they get it in different ways.
She quizzed them on some organ functions.
Hans: “What’s a spleen?”
Student: “It keeps me straight so teachers don’t yell at me.”
Hans: “No, that’s a spine.”
Hans has appeared at nearly every Outdoor School, she said.
“I like to teach kids about fish,” she said. “You have to have a lot of patience. They can get a little rowdy at times. But I think it lasts when they learn by doing.
“I see them years later and they come up to me and tell me things they’ve learned.”
This was the first Outdoor School Laura Archer, who teaches science, math and art at Seven Oak and she was impressed, she said.
“I think they are learning a lot of new things, a lot of science,” Archer said. “The volunteers are full of information. They’re very knowledgeable, kind, diligent.”
At another station, Lisa Chase of the Linn County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue team led a seminar on survival in the wilds, showing students various ways to start a warming fire using magnesium flakes, candle shavings, and vaseline on cotton balls.
She then brought out her retriever Molly, to whom students threw a ball that finally landed in the midst of a thick cypress, prompting Molly to torpedo through the thick bush in a fruitless search for the ball, to the delight of the students who rushed over to lend a hand.
“She won’t quit,” Chase said.
Not far away, students in hip waders sloshed around in the shallows of the lake at Tadmor while others fished off a pier on the far shore.
The waders were there with David Jones, a former fish biologist with ODFW for 10 years, for a session on macroinvertebrates – crayfish, snails, clams and insects such as dragonflies.
“I have sizes ranging from 8 to 13,” he announced. “Does anybody wear a 13?”
One student raised his hand.
Jones asked students what roles macroinvertebrates, which are large enough that a microscope isn’t necessary to inspect them, would play in nature.
Students answered that they provide food for fish, “tell us if a stream is healthy or not,” one said.
Prompting them, Jones asked, “What are those?” as he gestured at ducks across the lake.
“Food for aquatic birds,” he told the youngsters, answering his own question.
“Have you ever seen a duck eat a smaller duck?” a student asked.
“On YouTube?” another student chimed in.
“OK,” Jones said, laughing. :We’re getting off topic.”
He passed out the waders. “I don’t want anybody going in past the tops of their knees,” he told the youngsters. “I had a kid fall in this morning.”
Also, he warned them not to handle the rough-skinned newts that like to swim in the shallows.
“It’s not good for them and if you handle them, they can excrete a toxin. It won’t kill you, but it can make you pretty sick.”
Nobody touched the newts.
Alivia Holden, of Seven Oak, said the lake was “really fun, but very cold.
“Other than that, I liked going into lake.”
Her friend, Brina Disante, added: “It was really cool being able to see all these things that we normally don’t get to see.”
Karen Gourley, a staffer in the Health Room at Seven Oak, said she experienced Outdoor School herself as a sixth-grader herself and again, as a mentor when she was in high school.
“I think it’s awesome,” she said. “I’m just really excited we could do it again. They learn a lot more than classroom stuff.”
Sixth-grader Carter Wood said he was having fun.
“There are lots of activities,” he said, noting that his favorite was the Capture the Flag game the previous night, in pouring rain.
“Search and rescue was a fun time,” he said, adding that he was a little bummed that he didn’t get to do archery.”
Outdoor School is supposed to be funded by Prop. 99, which was passed last year by voters, Clegg said, and private grant funding for the program has fallen off because of that.
“The state has a deficit,” she said. “We’re crossing our fingers that it will play out like it’s supposed to. But none of us really know yet how that’s supposed to work.”
Abbey Walker brought 24 of her students from Pioneer. She was enthusiastic about the experience.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for students to get out in nature and learn about science,” she said. “I’m amazed at how many experts we have here to teach us. The amount of knowledge is fantastic.”
Said Archer: “They’re getting to learn in the outdoors, really authentic learning. This is Oregon. This is the stuff they live with.”
Outdoor School is supposed to be funded by Prop. 99, which was passed last year by voters, Clegg said, and private grant funding for the program has fallen off because of that.
“The state has a deficit,” she said. “We’re crossing our fingers that it will play out like it’s supposed to. But none of us really know yet how that’s supposed to work.”
Abbey Walker brought 24 of her students from Pioneer. She was enthusiastic about the experience.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for students to get out in nature and learn about science,” she said.
“I’m amazed at how many experts we have here to teach us. The amount of knowledge is fantastic.”
Said Archer: “They’re getting to learn in the outdoors, really authentic learning. This is Oregon. This is the stuff they live with.”