Students go outside to get into science

In 104 acres of boulders, trees and grassy meadows, science teacher Brent Osborn hadn’t seen his students for about 15 minutes.

He stepped over fallen logs, hiked up steep rises and meandered through thickets, covering a lot of ground at the Pinecroft Natural Area Preserve in Spokane Valley, a fenced-in “biological island” west of the YMCA. But his 60 students remained scattered out of sight on a sunny school day.

The North Central kids weren’t playing (too much) during the field trips Monday and Tuesday. They were, presumably, hard at work in an outdoor classroom.

Osborn is part of the North Central High School science department, which is working to move science away from textbook lessons and toward hands-on learning. Last year, Osborn’s students completed their first science journal, a 92-page publication including topics like independent research on the influence of slope on soil fertility, and an analysis of insect populations in native bunchgrasses and noxious weeds. Students will complete 20 separate studies, each requiring research, preparation and collection of samples.

Some students used a hand-turned core tool to take more than a dozen pencil-sized samples from trees to study their age. They’ll eventually look at the impact of the region’s industrialization on the rate of tree growth. Other students placed sensors to gather data on the amount of noise pollution in the preserve. Others looked for evidence of animals, like owl droppings or and trees chewed by porcupines. They plan to do a study of the economic impact of wildlife populations on surrounding businesses.

Osborn, an outdoorsman who likes to hunt and fish, said it was nerve-racking to not know exactly where his students were Monday. Several teachers and other adults with radios were helping guide students.

“I’ve been doing this all day, back and forth. I think a lot of them are tired. The students are not used to this,” Osborn said.

He told them to wear boots and layers of clothes. He explained there are no trails, but some students still thought he was exaggerating. One student came in dress shoes and slacks, Osborn said.

Monday’s tally was impressive: two 6-inch tall praying mantises captured; three coyotes and two great horned owls spotted; and a dozen hard-to-find owl pellets found.

Before being let loose on the preserve, students read up on previous studies. Some used maps to focus their searches.

For instance, 15-year-old Britnee Outen’s group divided the land into grids and studied a dead tree at the center of each grid to determine how it died. Some trees had numerous diseases, others seemed to have some insect infestation and others had been chewed extensively.

Outen felt tired, but she had no complaints. “I’ve never done this kind of thing before,” she said. “You can actually stay awake in class.”

Such hand-on teaching can be time consuming and expensive, said Osborn, who has received funding from a variety of sources, including a $10,000 Toyota Tapestry grant and a $6,000 M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust “Partners in Science” grant. He recently also was awarded $2,000 from the ING financial group, which gives 100 prizes nationally each year for Unsung Heroes. There were four winners inWashington and one in Idaho.

Osborn plans to continue the student science journal for as long as possible.

“One of these kids could be a doctor one day. One could be a Ph.D.,” Osborn said. “The cure for cancer could be in one of these minds.”

The entire science department at North Central was joined on the field trip by rincipal Steven Gering, a worker from the state Department of Natural Resources and an Eastern Washington University professor. North Central science teacher Randy James said he noticed a difference among students caused by their increased exposure to science. Not only can he point to more students who say they want to be scientists, he noticed that after they gather data they “have to take it back to the lab,” not the classroom.

“It’s not the classroom anymore,” James said.