Students Learn About Nature at Their Classroom With a View : Education: Park Oaks sixth-graders spend a week of study and fun in the Malibu mountains at the school’s annual wilderness science camp.

The classroom did not look like a classroom.

Instead of chalkboards and desks, students sat on giant rocks brushed by ocean breezes and stared at clear blue skies. Their teachers wore shorts and sandals. And instruction did not require a pencil or paper, but a pair of hiking boots and a dab of sunscreen.

They waded rain-swollen stream beds, touched salamanders and tree frogs, nibbled edible plants and gazed at the stars for lessons in botany, zoology and other scientific fields. And when the week was over, no one wanted to go home.

In the six months since school started, James Azevedo’s sixth-grade students at Park Oaks elementary school have dutifully studied reading, writing and arithmetic while eagerly anticipating the event that would highlight their school year: a week at outdoor school in the Malibu mountains.

The wilderness science camp, a traditional sixth-grade excursion at Park Oaks, signals the fast-approaching end of the school year. The camp is designed to teach students about their environment, but educators say it also serves as a rite of passage for the wide-eyed 11- and 12-year-olds, ushering them out of elementary school and helping prepare them for junior high.

“I point toward it,” Azevedo said. “You learn more science in a week up there than you do in class for a year.”

But before students traded in history books for hiking boots, there were other objectives to be met. In the three months since winter break, Azevedo’s class has completed social science lessons on ancient Egypt and India, and recently started discussing early Chinese history.

They have taken frequent quizzes on multiplication and long division. Almost half the class is now working out of a seventh-grade math textbook, honing pre-algebra skills they will need in junior high.

They have studied classic literature, including Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist” and Jules Verne’s “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.” And just before camp, they received their second report cards.

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Most had improved their grades since December, including 12-year-old Frank Arambula, who before Christmas had promised to raise his dismal marks. “He is a real turnaround,” Azevedo said.

And finally late last month, it was time for the trip to Malibu, the biggest perk of sixth grade.

Educators say outdoor school culminates the students’ last elementary year, while instilling important life lessons for the future.

“I think it is the best experience they have all year,” said Jeanean Hollen, Park Oaks’ computer teacher and the parent of a Thousand Oaks seventh-grader who went to camp last year. “I think camp gives them an opportunity to explore this need for independence in a safe environment.”

A strange phenomenon also occurs at camp. The cliques, name-calling and sometimes cruel social customs that splinter sixth-graders into campus factions nearly cease to exist at outdoor school, Azevedo said.

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“We have a situation sometimes at recess (on campus) where Hispanic kids play basketball on one court and other kids on another court,” Azevedo said. “Here, there is none of that.”

Since 1973, sixth-grade students in the Conejo Valley Unified School District have ventured into the woods for outdoor school, leaving Thousand Oaks’ suburban sprawl behind to study nature in nature.

“It is a part of the students’ science curriculum,” said Richard Wells, director of the outdoor school program. “Our feeling is it is best taught outdoors. Being able to hold an animal is a whole lot different than reading out of a book or sitting in class.”

Students spend five days at Camp Bloomfield, a remote canyon compound nestled in the Santa Monica Mountains about 18 miles from Thousand Oaks, where students sleep in 12 rustic cabins set on 60 to 70 acres of wilderness.

Where the campground ends, state parkland begins a descent to Leo Carrillo Beach and the Pacific Ocean. It is the largest classroom in the Conejo Valley school system, and teachers hope that what students learn there will spark an interest in and respect for the environment.

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“In the grander scheme of things, I would hope they would get excited about what lies outside,” said Mike Morley, a 25-year-old naturalist at the camp and a Thousand Oaks High School graduate. “They are so conditioned to coming home and watching TV. There’s a whole world that is open to them outside, and they can go out and explore it.”

Once partially funded by the school district, the outdoor school program fell victim to budget cuts three years ago. Now, students must pay $145 each to attend. Those who cannot afford the fee are given scholarships.

This year, 32 of Azevedo’s 36 students went to camp. Although he encourages everyone to attend, this year two students could not go for health reasons and two others went on family vacations instead.

“It’s just such a neat thing,” Azevedo said. “You have to get along. Picking on each other is so common and so popular. But up there you can’t talk behind someone’s back because it’s just go, go, go.”

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Accompanied by four other sixth-grade classes from Park Oaks and Aspen elementary school, Azevedo’s students left for camp on March 27.

For many, the five-day outdoor school was their first extended time away from home. But from the moment the pre-adolescents stepped off the school bus, naturalists and student counselors tried to head off any potential homesickness.

“You guys are going to have fun this week!” hollered 22-year-old Scott Nairne, a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student and camp naturalist. “We are going to make absolutely sure of that.”

The students, totaling about 140 students from the two campuses, arrived at midmorning. After unloading their sleeping bags and suitcases, they were divided into eight trail groups, led by each of the eight camp naturalists who teach the science classes.

Embracing the great outdoors, children shed their real names and adopt plant or animal nicknames, such as “Wildflower,” “Mouse” and “Bug.”

The names are scrawled on small wooden tags that each student wears on a yarn necklace throughout the week. Naturalists, teachers and counselors adopt new names as well.

“Why do we do camp names?” asked Nairne, nicknamed “Breeze,” as he handed out name plates and colored pens to his trail group on the first day.

“Because it’s fun?” the students answered.

“Yeah, because it’s fun,” Nairne said before launching a more serious lecture on camp rules. No radio headphones or portable video games--those are antisocial. And girls and boys are strictly prohibited from each other’s cabins.

During an orientation hike, Nairne led his group through the jungle of sycamore, pine and oak trees that line Camp Bloomfield. A small stream that runs through camp was gushing from the winter rains that drenched Ventura County this year. Wildflowers and new grass carpeted nearby hillsides.

As they toured camp for the first time, many students were awe-struck by the green leafy world that exists only half an hour from home.

“I never imagined all this,” 11-year-old Courtney Johnson said. “I didn’t think it would have all these trees and stuff.”

They were less impressed, however, with their new accommodations: steel-framed bunk beds and common showers. Recognizing children’s apprehension, high school counselors tried to ease their discomfort.

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“For a lot of these kids, it is their first time away from their parents, so it is important to make sure this is a good experience for them,” said Maggie Dawson, 17.

Twelve counselors from Thousand Oaks High School worked at camp for the week, sleeping in the chalet-style cabins with the students and providing additional supervision on hikes and during meals.

Academic lessons at outdoor school started almost immediately for Azevedo’s students. After lunch on the first day, the youngsters took an ecology quiz. Although many could not define aquifer or photosynthesis, the two-page exam gave students an indication of what they were expected to learn.

Science classes were held each morning and afternoon in places where students could observe the creatures or plants they were studying. In zoology, they ventured into a creek to see amphibians. For botany, they studied various native plants--even tasted a few--during a hike.

And for oceanography, they explored tide pools at Leo Carrillo Beach, touching mussels, barnacles and sea anemones stuck to craggy rocks.

Crystal Tonyan, 11, was fascinated by the purple sea anemones that sucked in their wispy tentacles when she touched them. Ryan Hansen, 12, examined a clammy orange mussel left discarded on the beach, and wondered how anyone could think of eating such a thing.

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Walking on the sandy shore with his classmates, Chris Pentis, 12, looked for crabs. One of two special education students being mainstreamed in Azevedo’s class this year, Chris’ participation in outdoor school is an example of true inclusion, educators said.

For his part, Chris said outdoor school was more interesting than his classes at Park Oaks. “I don’t want to go back,” he said. “We went on this creek hike and saw stink bugs and frogs and we saw salamanders. At home, you don’t realize how many animals are around.”

Sitting on a grassy field at dusk a day before the class departed for home, Frank Arambula reflected on his camp experiences and recorded his memories in a journal for class.

“Camp made us more mature in a way,” he said. “We know nature better, we learned to get along with other kids that popped up from nowhere. . . . I just wish this camp could be longer. I don’t want to leave.”