Journeys Window (a weblog)

Out of this World with Professional Development

journeyswindow — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:49:54 +0000

Sierra Nevada Journeys capped off the first Astronomy workshop with resounding success! The workshop was facilitated by amateur astronomer extraordinaire Richard Smith, who passed his wealth of celestial knowledge on to the enthusiastic attendees. The three session workshop provided educators with not only a solid background of information but a handful of activities to take back to their classrooms. By the third night many had disclosed to using some activities in the classroom already! One especially popular lesson was the creation of a “pocket solar system” using register tape to illustrate the distribution of the planets throughout our solar system. This helps students to visualize just how expansive our solar system is, and have a clear picture of just how close (in space terms) earth is to the sun! The three night workshop covered everything from identifying planets, moons, stars, comets, and asteroids to learning the phases of the moon using Styrofoam balls on sticks and a bright lamp in the center of the room. Unfortunately our stargazing night was slightly marred by frigid temperatures and clouds, but everyone was able to gain a healthy understanding of star maps and how to use them in a practical scenario. As this was an incredibly successful endeavor, Sierra Nevada Journeys plans to have some follow-up astronomy events for families, so keep an eye out on our website! If you are interested in learning more about Richard Smith please visit http://sidewalkuniverse.blogspot.com/2009/05/one-wow-astronomy-day-event.html

Happy Holidays from the Residential Team!

journeyswindow — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:26:00 +0000

There’s a common misconception that bears hibernate during the winter. During true hibernation, however, the heart rate goes down and metabolism slows, causing the body temperature to lower dramatically, in some animals to near freezing. It is a state of inactivity. Bears never reach that level. They go into something called winter lethargy or denning, in which they are able to conserve energy without shutting down for the season.

In the lull in between fall and winter sessions of Journeys Outdoor School, the residential outdoor team has come back home and gone indoors. We are catching our breath, but by no means inactive. While preparing for winter, Journeys Outdoor School Director Adam Yarnes still has an eye on next spring, creating new and exciting lessons for a new year. Kari, the administrative projects coordinator, is a season ahead of that, working on ways to get the word out about Summit Camp 2010. With all of this forward thinking going on, Tiffany, the residential schools coordinator, is working primarily with the past, revising lesson plans and preparing an evaluation that will give us answers on what we have done well and, most importantly, how we can be better. In this “down time” there are programs to be booked and information to be gathered and a thousand things to do, from past reflections to forward preparations to ensure that the programs in 2010 grow from our experiences in 2009. So, while this month the residential team may be spending more of our working time indoors, our state of being is definitely active.

We hope you are enjoying the snow and embracing the fact that humans don’t have to hibernate. Happy holidays from all of the Journeys Outdoor School Staff!

Reflecting on 2009

journeyswindow — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 23:46:21 +0000

As 2009 draws to a close at Sierra Nevada Journeys, we have so much to be thankful for. In 2009, thanks to supporters like you, we have been able to serve over 6,000 students with over 104,000 hours of hands-on education, and we’ve had the ability to provide our life changing programming to every school, student, and family that has requested it, regardless of economic situation. Thirty-six percent of students served are on their school’s Free & Reduced Price Lunch program (i.e. their parents can’t afford to send them to school with lunch each day). A mother recently wrote to us after sending her son, a boy she identified as having special needs, to our programming. She stated that after his Sierra Nevada Journeys experience he was “a changed boy. Matthew stood taller with more confidence and wore a genuine smile that spread to his eyes. The sight warmed my heart.” With your support, Sierra Nevada Journeys aims to bring that same empowerment and confidence to youth throughout Northern Nevada and Northern California.

Please join us in inspiring students to want to learn again, and please consider Sierra Nevada Journeys in your year-end, holiday giving. Below you will find how your gift can make a difference. You can give online at http://www.sierranevadajourneys.org/get-involved/donations/ or by sending a check to 1301 Cordone Avenue, Suite 200, Reno, NV 89502. Thank you for helping us make a difference in our community, and in our world.

The following gift amounts* represent the difference you can make with your contribution:
• $25 supports an hour of in-class or after- school instruction for two students.
• $50 supports a student who will explore the outdoors as part of a Classrooms Unleashed field study.
• $100 supports one student’s 6-hour journey to understanding what a watershed is and why it’s important.
• $250 supports a classroom of students engaging in a hands-on watershed, energy or earth science lesson.
• $1,000 supports four students’ fees to experience our life-changing, week-long, residential outdoor school.

*These dollar amounts represent an approximate cost of our programs. However, your gift will go toward all of our educational programming and the costs associated with making them happen.

After School Program at the Swanston Community Center in Sacramento

journeyswindow — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:11:55 +0000

Students who showed up at the local Community Center in the Mission Oaks Recreation and Parks district to hang out after school last Wednesday were surprised to find an enthusiastic instructor from Sierra Nevada Journeys waiting for them! For the next hour and a half, the 10 or so students rose to the various challenges presented by the Adventure Team Building program. The students, ages 5-15, seemed to enjoy the progressive challenge of the team-building initiatives, from an introductory “Group Name Juggle”, to the grand finale, “One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish”. As the students progressed, they started to communicate with each other more, which helped them to “pass” the increasingly difficult challenges. One of the best moments of the day was when the students asked the instructor for “a couple of minutes to talk about strategy” before starting the last challenge. This is exactly what instructors like to hear!

The program continues tomorrow (November 25) with a lesson on Watersheds! This collaboration with Sierra Nevada Journeys and the Mission Oaks Recreation and Parks District is an exciting new turn for the Sacramento office, and for the students at the Swanston Community Center!

Water Testing at the Sparks Marina

journeyswindow — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:26:16 +0000

4th grade students at Coral Academy of Science were “unleashed” from their classrooms this past Thursday as they had the chance to perform water quality tests at the Sparks Marina! Rotating through three different testing stations, students measured dissolved oxygen levels, pH, and temperature of both the Marina water and previously collected buckets of Truckee River water. In spite of the group’s obvious excitement and about being outside—not to mention the intense winds that picked up shortly after their arrival—students were engaged in inquiry-based discussions regarding the pH scale, the effects of changes in pH, the importance of dissolved oxygen, and different factors that can effect dissolved oxygen levels. After testing water temperature, Sierra Nevada Journeys instructor, Kristen aka Sequoia, facilitated a hands-on food web activity to illustrate the interconnectivity between different organisms and their habitats.

As one of the Sierra Nevada Journeys’ instructors on this field-trip, it was hard to tell who was having more fun—the students, or the parents and teachers. The parent chaperones seemed equally engaged in learning about our water-testing kits along with the test results, as quite a few of their kids go swimming in the marina during the warmer seasons. One parent in particular chuckled when the group was gathered in a circle sharing results—apparently the marina was a little healthier than he expected! To finish off the morning, students had a chance to explore the marina, observe some of the impressive bird species, and record their observations in the form of a drawing or short paragraph. All in all, it was a great day, and another example of the value of place based learning.

Explore Your Watershed Workshop

journeyswindow — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:51:44 +0000

Sierra Nevada Journeys was proud to work alongside some of our valued partners to bring an amazing workshop to a cadre of our local educators last weekend at Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge. The wetland area near Fallon, NV was the backdrop to a day that involved natural history education, learning how to monitor watershed health and productivity, and an afternoon spent with a unique opportunity to kayak on the refuge’s waterways!

The day began at the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribal (FPST) facilities with a presentation by Mary Kay Wagner with the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection, which was designed to give workshop participants a beginning understanding of wetlands and their importance. Susan Sawyer, with the Fish and Wildlife Service followed with a fun, hands-on activity where everyday items were used as metaphors for wetland functions. For example one gentleman pulled a box of band-aids from the container, and all learned about how wetlands serve as a healing ground for injured birds traveling on their seasonal migrations. Mary Kay and Susan were assisted by the knowledgeable Lou Loftin, with the North West Regional Professional Development Group, especially in the prehistoric geology realm, of which our state has an incredible history. Carmen Gonzales, the Environmental Protection Specialist with the FPST, gave everyone background information on the cultural history and customs of the Paiute people whom inhabited the Stillwater area for hundreds of years.

Following our classroom session the caravan of workshop participants moved out onto a waterway to learn about how professionals assess the health of a watershed. This was accomplished through examining the macro-invertebrate populations that can be easily pulled from the water and examined with small hand lenses, and was facilitated by Linda Conlin with River Wranglers whose framing of this activity involves calculations designed to teach students how to gauge the health of their rivers by determining species ratios. This is always a popular activity, especially with students, everything from water fleas to damsel-fly larvae were discovered! We also did some traditional water testing using instruments to determine water and air temperature, conductivity, pH, turbidity, and levels of dissolved oxygen. It was exciting to be assisted in these experiments by a professional such as Carmen Gonzales! Laurie Gray, with Sierra Nevada Journeys, facilitated the day’s final education event, sharing an activity that highlights the camouflaging done by birds and their prey, which all the educators were excited about taking back to their classrooms! Teachers left the workshop with WOW (Wonders of Wetlands) Activity Guides, Project Learning Tree PreK-8 Environmental Education Activity Guides and a wide array of other valuable resources provided by our partners.

The highlight of the day for all, however, was the stellar kayaking adventure upon the refuge itself. As we paddled among the cattails and “tules,” the water reflected the afternoon sunlight to cast a warm glow while Bob Goodman from the Audubon Society taught us about bird identification and behavior. It was a valuable experience for everyone, and each participant took away a greater appreciation for our local wetlands, and our need to act as stewards to protect such beautiful places.

Sierra Nevada Journeys would like to thank Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, River Wranglers, US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Audubon Society, and the Fallon-Paiute-Shoshone Tribe for being such great partners in helping us achieve such a great workshop!

To view pictures from the Explore Your Watershed workshop, check out the Sierra Nevada Journeys Flickr Page!

Reflections from an Outdoor School Instructor

journeyswindow — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:17:45 +0000

My favorite lesson of the weekly Journeys Outdoor School sessions was surprisingly one in which I had to work the least. I am not a slacker, nor am I advocating lackadaisical teaching—my next favorite lesson was taking students through the ropes course, in which I worked tirelessly to keep my group safe, energized, and engaged in a life-changing experience.

The pond ecology lesson at Grizzly Creek Ranch, however, provided something different, something difficult to achieve in education. I gave my students nets to find macro-invertebrates, bowls to be filled with water, a silly song about the parts of an insect–head, thorax, abdomen–and a directive to explore the pond. They did the rest. After a few moments, a pair of my students would inevitably shout, “Wow, Jeff, come look at this!” and I would rush over to share in their joy at finding some weird creepy crawly thing. Using a dichotomous key, they would identify the invertebrate, and I would either affirm their discovery or gently prod them towards a more realistic identification. They usually got the identification correct, and they usually remembered the parts of an insect, but the results from this lesson run deeper. Exploring the pond from the water’s edge, kneeling on the ground to get a better view of a water scorpion, mayfly larva, backstrider, or damselfly, these kids–boys and girls alike–were enthralled with nature. They were excited about discovering new things and, whether they would openly acknowledge it or not, they were acting like scientists.

After a season of working at Journeys Outdoor School, I hope my students remember the producer-herbivore-carnivore cycle and the adaptation bats use to find their prey. But, even more, I hope that I have given them a moment for themselves in nature, a spark that leads them on to new discoveries

~Jeff Dyer

Nevada Trails

journeyswindow — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:23:52 +0000

Jonathan Mueller was recently the guest on Nevada Trails, a show on Access Carson City that promotes safe use of outdoor activities and sports. Thank you to Nevada Trails for having us, and for all of their good work! Click here to see Jonathan’s Nevada Trails debut!

Communities Unleashed

journeyswindow — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:35:23 +0000

What better way to learn about science than to take a step outside and immerse oneself in it? Sierra Nevada Journeys created its Classrooms Unleashed Field Trip program with this very idea in mind. Studies have shown that students learn better when they are given the chance to do and discover things on their own and that getting outside, even for just a little while, can improve a student’s focus and enthusiasm for education. The Reno/Tahoe area is abundant with beautiful, natural spaces to explore and enjoy, and Sierra Nevada Journeys knows just how to make this happen. In the past, Classrooms Unleashed has taken students to Spooner Lake, Silver Saddle Ranch, and even Mount Rose Meadows for snowshoeing adventures!

Now, we realize that it’s not just students who are suffering from what author Richard Louv refers to as “Nature Deficit Disorder.” So, on November 14^th from 10 am – 2 pm Sierra Nevada Journeys will be hosting its first formal Communities Unleashed event at Galena State Park. This will be the first event of an ongoing effort to get families and community members excited about outdoor learning and science education. It is open to the public, free of cost, and will be jam packed with exciting nature-directed activities. Join us for guided hikes around Galena Forest, nature art, and a Service Learning Project in which we will clean-up the park while learning about the importance of “Leave No Trace” ethics. Refreshments will also be served! Join Sierra Nevada Journeys in providing a valuable learning experience that will encourage people to become caretakers of the natural world and active, engaged members of our community.

Galena State Park is immediately outside of Reno, just 6 miles up Mt. Rose Hwy/NV-431 W. If you have any questions, or would like to attend, please contact Darcey at (775) 355-1688 -or- darcey@sierranevadajourneys.org by Tuesday, November 10th, 2009. We hope to see you there!

Place-Based Education Finds a Place in Harlem

journeyswindow — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:57:59 +0000

A recent article in the New York Times explores the merit of Field Trips, or as this article calls it, “Field Study.” Standardized tests often make references to bucolic farm and nature settings; however, young urban students (the students in this article are kindergarteners from Harlem) have no frame of reference or hands on knowledge of these settings, and therefore have trouble when these concepts are presented in standardized tests.

The article quotes teacher Abigail Johnson, who in a statement about her students, manages to express the crucial nature of hands-on and place based education: “They are good at reciting and remembering things,” she said, “but they can’t make the connection unless you show it to them.”

Click here to read the article!