The Story of Eric White Elementary School’s Field Trip to Kaweah Oaks Preserve

by Laura Childers, Environmental Education Director, SRT

The school bus squeaks to a halt, and a class of fifth grade students hesitantly piles off, looking around shyly at the vast expanse of meadows and woodlands surrounding them. I can sense that most of them have rarely left the agricultural landscape of Selma, their home town, and are slightly nervous about exploring this mythical “Nature” that they’ve heard so much about from the Discovery Channel. The students divide into small clusters of friends and giggle nervously about the field trip that’s just begun, speculating quietly about whether or not anacondas, tigers, and Big Foot are lurking in the darkness beneath the trees.

Before they know it, the kids are divided into two separate groups and will not be seeing each other again until lunch time. Volunteer Naturalist Steve Ny leads one group of students and heads straight for the Sycamore Trail, a favorite hiking trail at the preserve. I take leadership of the second group, and away we go!

My eyes open wide, and I whisper urgently to the kids, “Okay guys, the first thing that we are going to do today is look at animal bones!”

At first, their expressions morph into affected adult behavior, namely feigned boredom, cartoonish revulsion, and — underneath it all — the pure, child-like curiosity that fifth graders ultimately cannot suppress in themselves, though they would like to think they’re already grown up (and thank goodness they are not!).

If there is anything I have learned about children through my position as the Education Director, it’s that they love the macabre. Learning about the dialectic between life and death in nature, the cycle connecting all things, is an essential part of not only learning about how nature works but also learning about life itself. 

We gently handle the bones of real elk, wild hogs, cows, coyotes, and foxes, turning them over and over in our hands to see that, yes, that is where the eyes went, that is where its ears were. I ask them, “Why do you think its teeth are shaped the way they are? Why are its eyes where they are on its head?” It’s a game of exploration, building familiarity with wild animals by handling them in a way they never could otherwise. We feel the snakeskin, wondering about what it would be like to have to change your skin and not just your clothes when you grow bigger. It allows the children to relate to the creatures who share our world with us.

By this time, the masks of adulthood they wore at the beginning of the field trip have fallen away. The kids squeal every time they see a squirrel pop out of its borrow or a bird fly overhead. We rally together and go search for insects, the tiny creatures that manage to dwell, mysteriously, in nothing but a parched, grassy field. We wonder at how the grasshopper’s shell  matches the color of the grass so well; even his eyes are a grassy brown.

The woods still loom large in the eyes of the children, and they question me repeatedly if we are going to explore them during our hike. I tell them that we are going on an adventure into the forest, the wildlands of Visalia, and that we must stick together to learn about everything hidden within it. The kids grow silent when I tell them that if we are quiet, we may see some of the shyest animals of all — the coyote, fox, or deer.

Together, we creep along trails veiled by grapevines and valley oak canopies, green light filtering through to the forest floor. Lizards dart across our path, and lady bugs fly around us, sometimes landing on a lucky student. We hear the acorn woodpecker starting his summer storage of acorns in the stag trees and see apple-colored galls filled with tiny, sting-less wasp sprouting from the branches. The kids explore vine caves and tunnels, climb a sprawling sycamore tree, and even swing from a real grapevine just like George of the Jungle, the kids’ version of Tarzan.

Exploration is the key element of scientific discovery and learning, and the urge to explore is cultivated during childhood. Benjamin Franklin spent his youth wandering the woods of New England. Jane Goodall spent her childhood climbing trees in England with her trusty dog as her only companion. Would Benjamin Franklin ever have discovered electricity if he hadn’t learned the thrill of exploration as a child? Would Jane Goodall have dared to enter the jungles of Africa if she hadn’t spent years walking through forests alone? Personally, I doubt it.

I believe that the urge to explore is the most valuable thing we can give a child. One of the best places to teach them that is in nature because there are endless possibilities for discovery.

This spring, thirteen naturalists taught over seven hundred children how to explore and discover in the natural world. They are incredibly valuable to this community and the development of our next generation of leaders.

SPECIAL THANKS TO NATURALISTS:

Rosie Bonar
Liege Garcia
Ken Greenspan
John Greening
Michael Harris
Russ Kehn
Hans Konrad
Jeff Medlin
Brian Newton
Steve Ny
Ken Olsen
Linda Peterson
Phil White

You all are incredible, and thank you so much for teaching kids about nature this Spring.

THANKS TO OUR GENEROUS FUNDERS:

Alcoa Foundation
REI
Sempra Foundation
Southern California Edison

If you are interested in sharing your love of the great outdoors with youth, please contact Laura Childers to set up a training date at (559) 738-0211 x103.

“This Land is Your Land” – Project Funded by Alcoa Foundation

By catching insects, students get to learn about camoflauge and food chains. They also use magnifying glasses to see the insects’ tiny body parts and learn biology.

Sequoia Riverlands Trust (SRT) is pleased to recognize the Alcoa Foundation for generously providing us with a $30,000 grant in October 2008 to support SRT’s education program. The “This Land is Your Land” project for 2009 focused on providing nature experiences to underserved families and youth in Tulare County.

Thanks to Alcoa’s generous support, SRT was able to increase its outreach efforts and environmental education offerings to even more minority and economically-disadvantaged families in 2009. In all, the “This Land is Your Land” project reached approximately 3,500 children and 1,300 adults.  We’d also like to thank the 77 volunteers who made this project happen by donating a total of 535 hours.

During the course of the project, SRT nurtured several valuable relationships with other local organizations who are committed to the education of our youth: Pro-Youth/HEART (after-school program dedicated to building opportunities for youth success in Tulare County), SCICON (the outdoor school of science and conservation, operated by the Tulare County Office of Education), WildPlaces (a non-profit organization focused on volunteer-driven restoration projects and youth outdoor education). We hope to further develop these partnerships in an effort to build a network of resources and opportunities that will enable us to strengthen each of our organizations’ youth programs, and more importantly, inspire even more kids in the area.

Other notable 2009 SRT accomplishments made possible by the Alcoa Foundation’s support:

• SRT continued its partnership with the Tulare County Office of Education to welcome more than 1,000 elementary school students as participants in the Kaweah Oaks Preserve field trip program.  SRT Education Coordinator Laura Childers expanded curriculum to include content relating to Language Art and History as part of SRT’s effort to help prepare students for California’s Standardized Testing and Reporting program.  In addition, SRT translated field trip activity sheets into Spanish to make the field trips more accessible to English as a Second Language (ESL) students and chaperones.
• SRT presented eleven 2-hour seminars to 200 Pro-Youth/HEART teachers on current environmental issues, and taught the teachers how to incorporate these themes into grade-appropriate lesson plans and activities.  As a result, this innovative curriculum will reach more than 2,300 youth enrolled in Pro-Youth/HEART program throughout the 2009-2010 school year.
• SRT gave away 100 free SRT memberships to families with children enrolled in the Pro-Youth/HEART after school program.  By keeping in touch with these 100 families, SRT hopes to keep them informed about the natural world around them and engaged with the free outdoor recreation opportunities available at Kaweah Oaks Preserve.

About Alcoa Foundation
Alcoa Foundation is a nonprofit U.S. corporate foundation with assets of approximately US$370 million. Its mission is to actively invest in the quality of life in Alcoa communities worldwide. Throughout its history, Alcoa Foundation has been a source of positive community change and enhancement, with over US$490 million invested since 1952.

Great News for Environmental Education!

Subsidies for Field Trips and FREE Busing to the Kaweah Oaks Preserve

May no child be left inside! Field trips to Kaweah Oaks Preserve just got a whole lot more affordable. In recognition of the difficult financial situation most schools face, SRT is only asking them to contribute $1.50 per student towards the cost of their field trip. Field trips often include 100 students or more, so SRT’s increased subsidy can reduce the schools’ costs by upwards of $300.

Tulare County’s LOOP Bus is now available—for free—to transport at-risk students to the Kaweah Oaks Preserve. Yes, that’s right. Field trips to the Kaweah Oaks Preserve are not only heavily subsidized by SRT; transportation to the preserve is completely free.

To sign up for the LOOP bus, visit http://stepuptc.co.tulare.ca.us/?cat=20. Applications for the bus must be submitted at least two weeks prior to the field trip.

Transportation has always been one of the primary hurdles for getting students out to the preserve to interact with nature and put their classroom Science lessons into practice. Simply busing students to the preserve can cost schools upwards of $500 per field trip. Now, with free LOOP Bus Service to the preserve, that hurdle has been eliminated.

SRT hopes these subsidies will allow more students to access the natural wonders that Kaweah Oaks Preserve has to offer them. Study after study has indicated that students who spend time outdoors in nature not only increase their Science test scores, but also improve their problem-solving skills and sense of creativity, abilities that are useful for all facets of life.

Sequoia Riverlands Trust looks forward to strengthening its partnership with  the Tulare County Office of Education and Pro Youth/HEART. Just this week, two groups of Pro Youth/HEART 3^rd and 4^th graders came out to Kaweah Oaks Preserve for fun and informative curriculum-based tours.

To sign up for a field trip to the Kaweah Oaks Preserve, visit our website (www.sequoiariverlands.org). You can also contact the Education Coordinator, Laura, at (559) 738-0211 x105 or laura@sequoiariverlands.org.

The Dirt on SRT’s Environmental Education Program

by Laura Childers, Education Coordinator

SRT’s environmental education program is moving along a path of rapid evolution, shifting and honing its shape to survive in a new economic climate that seems to be freezing rather than warming. Read on for the latest news about field trips, teacher trainings, and service learning opportunities.

Field Trips

Two dozen children popped their heads out of the school bus windows and shrieked, “I love you!” in unison, leaving a handful of mystified naturalists in their wake as the bus rumbled down the road exiting Kaweah Oaks Preserve.

It was a scorching hot afternoon, and SRT was on its way to completing the May rush of school’s-almost-out field trips—introducing 800 elementary school children to the great outdoors in their own backyard. Kaweah Oaks Preserve is a mere 10 – 15 minute drive from most Visalia area schools. The preserve protects a pristine piece of the valley oak woodland that used to dominate this region.

The preserve is literally crawling with educational opportunities. Despite the heat, the enthusiastic students explored the preserve with gusto—creeping through secret vine caves hidden along the trails and examining grasshoppers they caught with colorful butterfly nets. These hands-on activities teach students valuable lessons that can be applied both in and out of the classroom.

SRT offers a program of diversified subject areas that include Math, Language Arts, and Social Studies, which help prepare them for the STAR test. The newly revised and expanded curriculum teaches students about the region’s ecology while utilizing their written, oral, and mathematical skills.

Scientists have shown that students who undergo outdoor education programs improve their Science test scores by 70%. SRT believes that our environmental education program can facilitate students’ progress not only in science, but in other subjects as well by providing them an engaging, hands-on learning environment.

Teacher trainings

Teacher trainings are SRT’s new frontier, and we got our feet wet as a guest lecturer with Pro Youth/HEART’s summer after-school teacher training. Thanks to HEART’s good faith, SRT trained 250 teachers in environmental education, providing them with lesson plans to teach their students about natural resource conservation in the San Joaquin Valley and Sierra Nevada. The lesson plans will be made available on the SRT website and the HEART database.

Service learning

What’s better than habitat restoration? Habitat restoration with a service learning component. That means that the community’s kids are making SRT’s preserves fit for native species—like deer, foxes, and drought-tolerant plants—while learning about the natural landscape. SRT is working with local educational and youth organizations to get these much-needed projects off the ground. Groups are encouraged to inquire about the latest service learning projects we’re planning and dive right in. Contact Laura Childers, Education Coordinator, at laura@sequoiariverlands.org or (559) 738-0211 x105.