Nature as Teacher : City children learn about the great outdoors firsthand. And they get to go camping as well.

Naturalists at Large, a Ventura-based firm that is in the business of teaching ecology, takes students out of class and into the great outdoors--to places such as Point Mugu State Park, the Santa Monica or Southern Sierra Mountains and the Pinnacles National Monument in the San Joaquin Valley.

Operating statewide, the organization provides natural science teaching programs to 150 private and public schools.

“We teach the students that they can learn outside the classroom,” said Richard Stowell, the firm’s founder. Starting with a staff of two in 1986, he now has seventy full-and part-time naturalist-instructors conducting sessions for elementary and high-school kids.

“Many schools see outdoor programs as only an extension of their science department,” he said. “Some view it as an extension of their physical education program,” he added, alluding to the physical rigors of the three, four and five days of camping and hiking involved.

In fact, this kind of learning-in- the-rough can complement any classroom subject from astronomy through history, all the way to zoology.

On one level, it’s a 100-hour lab session on zoology or geology, with real-life specimens that might bite you or scrape your shins. On another level, of course, there’s the character-building aspect of being in the wild--for some kids, it’s the first time.

“They could be better prepared,” observed Stowell dryly.

Administrative director Deborah Low agreed, telling of one high school teacher who complained to her about the lack of awareness of some of the students. “It would be marvelous,” the teacher reportedly said, “if these children cared half as much about the environment as they do about their hair.”

Not so for Nate Liberman, 12, of Thousand Oaks and his class. “I liked the hiking. Everybody got really interested because of the outdoors.” His seventh-grade class at Viewpoint School went to Cuyamaca Rancho State Park in San Diego County last October. In addition to the Naturalists at Large staff, the head of the school, Maria Kidd, and the regular science teacher, Jay Buckley, joined in the three days of hiking and camping.

“This is the culmination of a unit on environmental science,” said Kidd. “They get to see examples of what they heard in class. Exactly what they see is not what you’d expect. Beautiful vistas, yes.

“We also examine a space as small as a square inch--every ant, leaf and pebble,” said Kidd. “Because there is a difference between doing this in nature and in the lab, they see the effect of nature.” This provides the unexpected, it seems.

And not just for children. The Naturalists at Large program also takes senior citizens on outings. According to James Gallagher, coordinator for an Elderhostel program, which books Ventura County seniors on these trips, “we’ve had second marriages and new careers as a result.”

Correction: Last week’s column incorrectly stated the area code of the phone number of the Consumers Organic Mail-Order Directory. It is (916) 756-8518. They also have a toll free number--(800) 852-3832.

* FYI

For information on the Naturalists at Large, call 642-2692.