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