A Fresh-Air Approach to the Study of Science

“Shooting stars!”

The excited cries that went up from the group of sixth-grade girls on an astronomy walk soon gave way to embarrassed giggles as they realized that the supposed meteorites were really just the beams of their own flashlights, playing across the power lines overhead.

If the girls, from Swain and King elementary schools in Cypress, didn’t seem quite at home in the great outdoors, they could easily be forgiven. For many of the sixth-graders who each week make the trek to Orange County’s Outdoor Science School, this is a first experience in the mountains.

This school year, more than 15,000 students--more than half the sixth-graders in Orange County, plus many from outside the county--will travel to five sites in the San Bernardino Mountains to attend the weeklong school.

There, they learn about geology, wildlife, ecology and astronomy in a series of hikes and other activities that take a hands-on approach to environmental education. The Cypress students, who recently spent a week at a site near the tiny village of Forest Falls, panned for gold in the canyon stream, took night hikes in search of nocturnal animals, looked for birds with binoculars and saw Jupiter and four of its moons through a telescope.

While the students also learn camp songs and put together their own skits--with a nature theme--the Outdoor Science School is not a summer camp, insisted Lauren Pollock, acting principal of the Forest Home site.

“The kids get that confused sometimes,” Pollock said. “We run a very strict program.”

The school started in 1974 with one site and 1,400 children. The Cypress School District had started its own outdoor school in 1967, and eventually the two programs merged. As the school has grown, it has gradually changed focus, evolving from an experience-based program that taught outdoor skills to one that emphasizes the natural sciences.

“The curriculum has really tightened up a lot,” Pollock said. “I think our science has gotten better.”

Dan Baker, who oversees all five Outdoor Science School sites as principal, said the program is based on the premise that students can learn science better in a hands-on situation than in the classroom. “What’s best taught in the outdoors, teach in the outdoors,” Baker said. “If you teach about astronomy, take them outside.”

Also, Baker said, the science curriculum at many elementary schools is lacking. “Some districts don’t touch science,” he said. “For some kids, this is the highlight of their science learning.”

The buildup to the weeklong mountain trip begins early. In first through third grades, a traveling naturalist from the county makes a visit to each classroom with live animals and related exhibits. In the fourth and fifth grades, students make two full-day field trips to county sites such as Upper Newport Bay.

Once in the mountains, the students are split into cabin groups of 10 for the 5-day program. One adult cabin leader, also trained as an activity leader, is responsible for each group. Every week during the school year, each Outdoor Science School site handles about 100 children, with a staff that includes one acting principal, one naturalist, one environmental program leader, one nurse, four unit leaders and 10 cabin leaders. Also, the students’ classroom leaders come along.

“We’re real people-oriented,” Baker said. “There’s a lot of individual attention.”

The decision to participate in the Outdoor Science School is made by the individual districts. The county pays 10% of the program’s cost, while the rest ($134 to $146 per student, depending on the time of year) is the responsibility of the districts.

In some districts, the amount is paid entirely by the students’ families, while other districts put up all or part of the fee, sometimes with the help of fund-raisers or state lottery money. In some districts, students even start a class bank account as early as first grade that they contribute to with class fund-raisers.

“It’s the big deal of elementary school,” Bill Kuehl said. “It’s the main event.” Kuehl is a teacher at Swain who has been going to the mountains with his class for 12 years.

Jerry Konowal of Swain was one of the teachers who started the program for the Cypress district, and he has been coming up every year since 1967.

One of the things he finds valuable about the program is the opportunity to spend time with his students outside the school environment.

It is often a shock, he said, for students to eat with the teachers or see them wearing blue jeans. “We find the kids really look at you more as human beings,” he said.

“It helps with building the bond between teacher and student,” Kuehl said. “You learn about them as people. They learn more about us also.”

For many of the students, it is not only a first real outdoor experience, but it is also the first time away from home. Along with the lessons in science come a few life lessons, such as social and cooperative living skills--”How to get along in a group,” as Pollock explained.

The presence of familiar classmates and classroom teachers helps ease what could otherwise be a traumatic experience. “It’s more of a secure environment for that first time,” Pollock said.

As a teacher, Konowal has seen some students branded as rough or “problem” children suddenly come out of their shells in the mountains, inspired by the surroundings or, often, by the role models offered by cabin leaders, who are usually college-age.

“You feel this is a little flicker of light in that kid’s life,” Konowal said.

The Cypress district pays half of each student’s fee for the Outdoor Science School, and sometimes more if the student’s family can’t afford it.

“For a small district like Cypress, that’s a major expense,” Konowal said, “but it’s worth it.”