Outdoor Classroom : Nature: An environmental program’s approach is hands-on--except for poison oak. City children smell, touch and taste the things they find on mountain hikes.
Cathy Philipp has an unusual method of keeping kids away from poison oak.
“That’s the M.C. Hammer plant,” she told a group of curious 7- and 8-year-olds who got too close to some poison oak Friday morning in Point Mugu State Park.
“Why do you call it the M.C. Hammer plant?” one of the would-be outdoorsmen asked the naturalist, while his fellow students crowded around the clump of green and red vines just off the trail.
“Because you can’t touch this!” she said, reminding them of one of the rapper’s hit record.
This is how nature is taught by naturalists in the Mountains Education Program, an environmental education program run by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.
The MEP has been leading school groups, many including disadvantaged or inner city children who might not otherwise see the mountains, on guided wilderness walks for the past two years.
The approach to teaching is hands-on. Naturalists ask children to answer questions for themselves, allowing them to smell, touch, or even taste things they are curious about, rather than simply giving an answer.
“We emphasize the gee-whiz factor and just let the kids have a good time,” MEP Executive Director Amy Lethbridge said.
On Friday about 80 Thousand Oaks third-graders from Weathersfield Elementary School were introduced to the joys of nature provided by Sycamore Canyon, a rich, mountainous area overlooking the Pacific Coast Highway.
Philipp began by asking the children to name any rules they already knew about hiking.
“Don’t pick up anything,” an 8-year-old girl said.
“Don’t throw rocks. Don’t go off the trail. Don’t move if you see a snake,” they chimed in, showing they had already been taught a thing or two.
“And don’t eat any of the plants--unless I eat it first,” Philipp added, hinting at things to come.
Stopping at the trail head, Philipp motioned the group to come in close.
“Smell this,” she said, pointing at the flowers on a yellowish bush. “What’s it remind you of?”
Some said peppermint, others thought spearmint.
Philipp took some small seeds from the flowers and gave them to the children. “Go ahead, eat it,” she told them, explaining that the seeds from the sweet petals bush had previously been eaten by the Chumash Indians when they lived in the area.
So what did the seeds taste like?
“Licorice!” the kids said to each other, although not all of them were happy about it. Some spit the seeds out immediately.
It was the first of many discoveries they would make during the two-hour hike, including wild walnuts and raccoon, coyote and bobcat tracks.
Even something as simple as a fallen tree turned into a thing of magic when the young hikers used it as a bridge.
Providing Los Angeles and Ventura county schoolchildren with experiences like this is exactly what Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy officials had in mind when they began funding the program, Lethbridge said.
The children arrive on buses paid for by the MEP, take guided tours led by naturalists, and are later encouraged to phone a toll-free number staffed by bilingual operators and plan return trips to mountain parks closer to home.
The city and county of Los Angeles provide about $115,000 of the program’s $900,000 budget, paying for buses to take children from these areas to the park, Lethbridge said. She added that the majority of the budget is currently still paid by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, a state agency principally involved in land acquisition.
Ventura County children have not been able to fully take advantage of the program due to funding shortages, but Lethbridge is hopeful that future funding may be found to include more of the area’s schoolchildren.
Helene Weinstein, one of the two Weathersfield teachers on the trip Friday, said the one-day field trip was much more than just a day away from school.
“This trip is the best thing for learning these kids could have. It initiates a study of the Chumash for our social studies program . . . next week we’ll be reading a story on tracking animals.
“They’ll have seen it here and understand it a lot better.”
FYI
The Mountains Education Program operates a free hot line staffed by bilingual operators, offering locations of all mountainous parks, directions on how to get to them, maps and information on what to do once there. The number is 1-800-533-PARKS.
