Los Angeles County Outdoor Science School |
Los Angeles County Outdoor Science School |
2006-2007 School year:
October 6, 2006
We enjoyed the 95 6th grade students from Prarie Vista School in Hawthorne. Our first group of students were very respectful and loved learning more about nature the minute they got off the bus on Monday. The weather was crisp as typical for an early October day in the San Gabriel Mountains. Our night hikers enjoyed the almost full moon (waxing gibbous moon) and some of the students got to see moon craters with the school's binoculars! We had 5 naturalists groups this week, with one called 'the Team', which consisted of Emily, Sierra, and Leanne team teaching. Courtney and Micheal had great success in thier new reduce, reuse, recycle game activity this week. Many of the naturalists had human ecology and earth stewardship themes for their Thursday lesson plans out on the trail. An inversion layer and smog from the LA Basin was visible from Desert View.
October 13, 2006
114 campers both from Prarie Vista School in Hawthorne, and Alpine School in the Antelope Valley were excelent students in learning, exploring and discovering nature. The Black Oak trees are changing colors, the Western Grey Squirels are very bushy tailed, and busy burying accorns for winter's aproach. The weather was quite cool and breezy at times during the week. Sierra's group got to witness a red tailed hawk during their solo sit activity up on the Ridge Trail. During the night hike, we enjoyed clear skies and dark skies as the moon is in the waning gibbous phase.
October 22, 2006
Fall is definitely here! The beautiful Black Oaks (Oh Baby!!) are turning a golden yellow this week, giving an awesome contrast against the dark green of the Canyon Oaks and Western Yellow Pines. We were without Sierra this past week, as he was helping out with the crew of naturalists at our Maliu site of LACOSS. The air is cool and clear with the land anticipating the lower temperatures in the weeks to come.
October 30. 2006
The Black Oaks this past week turned more golden to orange. Out night hikes were under very clear and cold skies last Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. Our group of Students from Hawthorne Middle School and New Lexington were really great singers, and this pleased our neighbors, the Kaputchas, very much. Courtney was our Cabin Leader Coordinator and she did a wonderful job inspiring the students and cabin leaders to have a wonderful week.
December 1, 2006
Students from Rancho Vista and Point Vicente arrived with cold winter weather. A dusting of snow fell upon the mountains behind our school early Monday morning. After the front passed through the area, very cold temperatures greeted our trail groups on Tuesday morning. Morning songs were sung very strong thanks to our visiting classroom teachers; they had practiced most of the LACOSS songs with their students before arriving here in Wrightwood. On Tuesday night, Sierra's trail group was out on the night hike, learning about triboluminescence with quartz rocks and wint-o-green life savers (sucrose). Thanks to the group for asking the question about rubbing two life savers together instead of crunching them in your mouth, an experiment was conducted to indeed fond out that you can generate light by rubbing two pieces of broken lifesavers tog ether...a new discovery for our staff!! Gradually, the cold snap eased off a bit throughout the week. On Friday, the weather was warm enough to have our songs, hanky, and good byes outside at the campfire circle. A few of the students only needed t-shirts for the morning, which was a great contrast to the "wear ALL of your layers" advice given by naturalists earlier in the week. This was our last group of students for 2006. Our staff will be working on projects around the school in the weeks to come before our winter break. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!
February 16, 2007
Happy New Year! The frigid cold weeks of January (with a low of -2 degree F on Jan 13), and all the frozen pipes and plumbing problems in the Wrightwood area, have given way to more moderate temperatures lately. This past week, with Providencia Elementary School we started out with a cold weather on Tuesday. The chilly weather was such that we held morning songs inside Smith Hall early in the week. By Friday, we were outside in unseasonably warm weather saying our good-byes, thank yous, and singing On The Loose. The warmer weather and longer days are bringing out the flies, honeybees and other insects. Although we are enjoying the warm weather, we are also hoping for some good old fashioned heavy winter snow to blanket the school. So far this winter, we have only had a couple of snow falls. The most snow we have had this year was 3 inches a few weeks ago. Now that the students are on their way home, Courtney, Leanne, Micheal and Sierra will be exploring nature in Channel Islands National Park during the upcoming three-day weekend!
February 23, 2007
While Courtney, Leanne, Sierra, and Michael were out on Santa Cruz Island last weekend, 2-3 inches of snow fell at the school. Luckilly, most of it melted prior to the arrival of the busses of our two schools Hodge, and Northrup. Courtney and Sierra shadowed and observed the other naturalist groups this week as part of our staff development. Jeff's group found an exceptionally large gall or insect burl in one of our canyon oak trees. On Thursday, the weather progressively turned cold and windy. That night 2 inches of snow fell at the school. This morning, Kathleen, Sierra, and Courtney were shoveling the ice off the driveway in preparation for the busses to arrive. Fortunately, the sunny weather helped us out by the time the busses got here, and the good-byes were done. It is nice to see the days getting progessively longer and longer, with spring around the corner!!
March 2, 2007
The week started off with a warm afternoon on Monday, but winter's fury was unleashed that night and by Tuesday, 3 inches of new snow coupled with high winds made a cold first full day out on the trail. Jeff and Sierra's group opted for doing their indoor skull adaptation lesson that morning. More flurries fell and the ferocious winds blew the snow into drifts up to 18 inches deep on our upper trails. With the cold wind and snow, we opted for indoor lunches on Tuesday and Wednesday. With all the snow, many of our naturalists included lessons like the physics of friction and sliding on safe slopes and/or determining the snow water content with experiments involving a large graduated cylinders. On Wednesday, the snow eased off, and the winds slackened so that many of the naturalist groups went out on longer hikes to places like The Ridge and Desert View. Gradually the weather warmed up and the snow melted out such that by Friday, we were able to hold our closing ceremony outside in the campfire circle. In the end, it was a fun week with the students and winter weather. Jeff also reports from his bird feeder observations on his back porch that many spring species of birds like the American Robin are starting to be seen in the area. The daffodils are just starting to come up in Sierra's backyard, signaling the longer, greener, and warmer days ahead!
March 9, 2007
This week was drastically different in the weather with warmer temperatures and many song birds visiting our outdoor school. Last week's snow melted very fast throughout the week. With the smaller Kenter Canyon School group this week, we were able to perform staff development activities in the form of observing and evaluating each other during our trail teaching time. Sierra had a very full week, wearing several hats: as a trail naturalist, as a assistant cabin leader coordinator, and as a cabin leader for 10 boys in cabin 1. Tomorrow, many of our staff will be attending the Los Angeles Environmental Education Fair.
March 13, 2006
This week, the weather is so warm, it feels like summer instead of spring. It is so warm in the morning, that we are singing our morning songs in the shade of the large canyon oak tree. Close to one-hundred students from Duarte Elementary and Hargitt Elementary schools have joined us for a warm week of learning science in our outdoor classroom. Sierra is enjoying leading songs in the morning and then doing much needed projects around the school such as doing some needed trailwork above the Overlook. Later on this week, he will be spending a long weekend in one of his favorite places, Yosemite National Park!
April 6, 2007
115 Students from Ocotillo and Mesquite Elementary Schools enjoyed warm weather, and lots of time outside on the trail. Sierra's trail group spotted the very first beginnings of the Black Oak trees budding out new leaves for the spring. During a rock professor hike, Sierra's group also encountered a humming bird nest. Michael's group observed a cooper's hawk and its nest in Hidden Canyon this week. We were very fortunate to have the teachers from Mesquite Elementary, Mr. Stucky, and Mr. Hoffman podcast stories and photos about outdoor school this week. Click here to view the podcasts from this week.
May 18, 2007
Last week, Sierra completed his 80-hour Wilderness First Responder trainind with NOLS and WMI. The rest of the staff enjoyed our later than usual spring break. 58 Students from Santa Fe Elementary School in Baldwin Park enjoyed late spring warm weather. The spectacular and profuse yellow flowers are showing up on many of the flannel bushes around the outdoor school. The Beautiful Black Oaks (Oh Baby!!) are fully leaved out for the summer. Storm's group had a fun encounter with a harmless and docile garter snake. Sierra's group found an American Robin nest just above the compost area of our school. On Wednesday, Sierra's group also enjoyed lunch and solo nature observation time next to one of the few running streams in the San Gabriel Mountains. All in all everyone had a wonderful time exploring and learning about the forest here in Wrightwood.
May 25, 2007
Summer is nearly upon us. Flowers are now attracting a variety of nectivores, such as hummingbirds, Carpenter and Honey Bees, beetles and ants.
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