The Great Level 2 Leaf Dump!

At Outdoor School, Level Two students learned all about the layers of soil, and how forest duff decomposes to make the rich topsoil in which plants grow. They put their knowledge into practice several weeks ago by mulching the lot that will soon be the Community School's Learning Garden! Equipped with shovels, wheelbarrows, and other garden tools, the Kestrels, Merlins, and Falcons had to practice teamwork and communication in order to move and spread the massive leaf piles through the garden.

As they dug through the piles, some students made an exciting discovery: the center of the pile radiated warmth, steaming into the cold outside air! The presence of so many microorganisms and other decomposers in the pile, hungrily breaking down the organic material, can actually generate heat. It is this rich, decomposing matter that will ammend the soil, improving its quality for planting in the Springtime. Great work level two students!

If you would like to learn more about the development of our educational garden, please contact me at e.morgan@fgcschool.org. Meanwhile, enjoy the pictures below. Thanks!

Swallow Shelters in the B Street Wilderness

On recent Out and Abouts, Barn Swallows and Tree Swallows have been hard at work learning wilderness survival skills. Before the cold drove us inside for the Fall, students learned to make shelters using natural materials.

Several weeks ago, students began preparations by investigating how animals make their homes. Sherry's Barn Swallows went on a search for homes underneath a rock or log, and recorded the living creatures they discovered there, from slugs and worms to colorful fungi. Karen's Tree Swallows used cameras to record natural animal homes they found all around B Street. They photographed hollow logs, bird nests, and gopher holes, and used their knowledge to predict who might make a home there.

Next, the classes read about building shelters from a wilderness survival guidebook, and spent one week investigating B Street to find excellent locations for a shelter. They had to consider many factors, such as the slope of the land, water drainage, the direction of the sun, and natural hazards that might endanger their shelter!

Once a prime spot was chosen, teams of students had the opportunity to practice building their own shelters! One type of shelter is a wiki-up, a stick structure similar to a teepee, insulated with leaves and other debris. Find a nearby swallow student, and I'll bet that he or she can explain all the steps to build this shelter. The second type of shelter students built was a lean-to. This was a challenge for all the groups, but with amazing teamwork, they succeeded beautifully! See below for pictures:

Outdoor School

Level Two students spend last week at beautiful Camp Cedar Ridge, located in Vernonia. During thier visit, the students got to participate in four field studies, assess their personal environmental impact with Captain Conservation, sing campfire songs, and share a night-time adventure with their cabinmates and amazing couselors. I hope you'll enjoy this glimpse into their adventure...

Nori (a.k.a. Gretchen) and her class explored the forest and its inhabitants with the Plants Field Instructor, Lichen. They learned about the parts of a plant, met some native shrubs, and investigated decomposition and the carbon cycle with a F.B.I. hunt - that's fungus, bacteria, and invertebrates. In a final game, students learned the steps of forest succession - only a few had what it took to reach an Old Growth Forest.

The class also got close and personal with some of Cedar Ridge's wildlife. The students learned about predator and prey adaptations by observing preserved birds, antlers, and wings at the "dead zoo," learned a catchy song about insect parts, danced the levels of the food chain, and one lucky student even got to transform into a beaver!

I joined Sunrise (known to others as Veronica) and her class on a water study at the nearby creek, led by enthusiastic Instructor Lakota. Not only did students get to search for water-critters using nets and buckets, they also learned to monitor the health of the water, testing it chemically for Dissolved Oxygen (D.O). The class ended with a discussion of the life cycle of salmon (which students can observe happening right now, in the aquarium outside Charlie's classroom), and a final reprise of "The Water Cycle Boogie."

Crane (sometimes called Charlie), and his class joined Field Instructor Rocky on an exploration of the Earth. By taking a sample of soil, they got a close look at the layers of soil. Students turned a large sandy court into the state of Oregon, within a few minutes building mountains that have taken geologic forces millions of years! Using their model, students acted out the subduction of the tectonic Pacific Plate, and the orographic lifting that makes the Eastern side of our state so dry. Students warmed up at the end in a team game - a mad dash to move their "carbon" from one bucket to the next, experiencing what can happen when the carbon cycle is knocked out of balance by natural and human causes.

At recreation time, there was an epic battle of "Sprout Ball," an every-man-to-himself version of dodge-ball using soft foam balls. As the mist crept over the meadow for the evening, students headed into the cozy dining hall for a final dinner Thursday night, cheeks flushed, minds packed with new knowledge, eager to share the stories the next day with their families...

Thanks for coming along on the journey with Level Two. Visit again soon!

Interested in volunteering on future Out and Abouts? Email me at e.morgan@fgcschool.org