Taking students into the forest

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Originally appears in the Spring 2019 issue.

GETTING STUDENTS OUT of the classroom and into the forest activates their creative spark and engages them in acquiring solid scientific knowledge. Being in the forest enlivens students on many fronts. They return from the experience with vivid, tactile, visual, aural, and personal memories as well as ecological understanding of the forest system.

In Cambria, California, the organization Greenspace – The Cambria Land Trust partners with the Harold J. Miossi Charitable Trust to connect students with nature by inviting sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students out into the forest to be learners and researchers. The Greenspace Environmental Education Field Program uses nature as a means of teaching students about the relationships within the forest, namely those concerning its animals and plants. It is led by Greenspace board member Ann Cichowski and her husband Robert Cichowski, Greenspace Education Program Coordinator and retired California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) professor of chemistry.

What follows is the story of Santa Lucia Middle School students’ experiences with the Greenspace program as part of an elective Environmental Education class taught by Danielle Narzisi.