Science Class Finds That Nothing Beats the Beach : Education: Hands-on learning highlights South-Central youngsters’ camp-out on Orange County shore. A state ranger helps arrange their stay.

Ten-year-old Wendy Arias colored the moon, launched a rocket, drafted blueprints for the space shuttle, studied the sunrise, picked up seashells and practiced flying an airplane Thursday.

All before lunch.

“It’s more fun here than going to school; it’s better right here,” said a smiling Wendy, one of 60 fifth-graders from South-Central Los Angeles who spent three days camping at Doheny State Beach in south Orange County. “They don’t smoke here that much, no people stealing, there’s no drunk drivers. Here there’s a lot of trees, we’re in the sun, near the beach.”

For many of the students, the outdoor science camp organized by a Doheny ranger and their teacher at Wadsworth Avenue Elementary School was their first night sleeping away from home. It also was their first visit to a state park and their first chance to sleep in a tent and stare at stars away from the glare of city lights.

Some touched the ocean for the first time. Others built their first campfire, tickled to learn the words to “Kumbaya.”

“It makes science alive. It’s not a theory now, it’s life,” said Wadsworth teacher Patricia Atlow. “They see the waves coming in rather than reading about it. . . . It’s real now.”

Atlow, a science lover, met Doheny ranger Brad Heitzman last summer at NASA’s space camp for teachers and students in Huntsville, Ala. Heitzman, who teaches science part time at Culverdale Elementary School in Irvine, suggested that Atlow bring her students to Doheny for outdoor education.

Atlow laughed, explaining that at Wadsworth, in a poor area where 85% of the children qualify for free lunches, field trips are rare. To teach oceanography, she had always lugged sand and seawater into the classroom. Where would they get money for bus transportation?

But Heitzman designed a curriculum anyway. Atlow wrote a grant proposal. Last month, Rockwell International, the Seal Beach-based company that had paid for Atlow and Heitzman to attend space camp, offered $3,000 to underwrite the program.

Soon, permission slips were signed and the children were headed south.

“They need so many experiences. It’s not the same to look at TV or read a book,” said Wadsworth Principal Maggie Guajardo, who has worked for the Los Angeles Unified School District for nearly 30 years. “I know we try to tell the children you can go anywhere and do anything through a book, but it’s not the same as hands-on.”

Upon arriving Wednesday, students went on a nature hike, peering at native plants and identifying various species of birds. After building a miniature space shuttle and viewing a National Aeronautics and Space Administration video, they gathered around the campfire, singing a version of Manfred Mann’s “Doo Wah Diddy Diddy” that went, “There she was, just a-camping on the beach . . . “

They slept in tents pitched on grass within the sound of the surf.

Thursday morning, they made models showing the phases of the moon, tested the aerodynamics of airplane wings and launched paper and plastic rockets. After lunch, they marveled at a life-size sand sculpture of a whale, visited the San Juan Capistrano Mission and dissected sharks and squid.

“We’re learning about what the birds eat!” squealed Jenika Sears.

“We learned about the astronauts and how they went to space,” added John Price.

“And we learn about how the Earth is,” Jenika said.

“And we learn about the animals in the tide pool,” said John.

Together they said, “How the starfish feels.”

But the verdict on the best part of science camp was all but unanimous: No homework.