Like everything else this year, our Northwest Outdoor Science School programs looked a lot different this spring. Instead of heading off to a weeklong Outdoor School program hosted at one of our five residential sites, students tuned in through their computers and participated in Outdoor School @ Home through live and recorded, hands-on lessons. These lessons explored forest ecology, scientific observations, water and the life cycle of salmon, adaptations, fractals, soil and mushrooms. Students were encouraged to explore nature in their backyards, neighborhoods or nearby natural areas.

Caption: Seasonal staff member “Slice” created the sticker of ferns, mushrooms and seedlings growing out of a laptop as a fun visual representation of online outdoor school. The stickers were included in the student science kits and were a little memento of this very unique year of Outdoor School.

In addition to the virtual lessons, students had the opportunity to participate in community-building activities, games and a virtual campfire where they watched and listened to songs, skits and stories being performed by staff and peers. Outdoor School staff also produced dozens of videos and led six live sessions with each class they taught. All students were given a science kit to use during their activities.

An estimated 11,260 students from 78 schools participated during the spring session. 

In April, as more in-person learning was being permitted, two schools from Silver Falls School District were able to go on a field trip, led by Outdoor School Instructors, to Silver Falls State Park and surrounding areas. Students explored forested areas that were burned in last summer’s wildfires and then further impacted by the severe ice storms over the winter and compared those to forested areas that were not impacted by these events. 

Video caption: For years, Northwest Outdoor Science School has provided students with hands-on learning experiences to develop environmental literacy in a residential setting. This year we had to do things differently. Watch the video above to learn more about what Outdoor School @ Home accomplished this year.

“It was great to get a little taste of the kind of outdoor education we were once accustomed to and we look forward to when we can safely get back together in person,” says Lauriel Amoroso, curriculum and training specialist for NWRESD’s Northwest Outdoor Science School. 

See lessons on birds, dirt, water, fractals, leaves and more.