Dive Brief:
- The Plumas Unified School District in northeastern California is surrounded by the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Plumas National Forest and the Feather River watershed, all of which contribute to an experiential science curriculum.
- District Administration reports the district’s “Outdoor Core” includes 15 visits per year to privately preserved properties in the Feather River Land Trust that are just a 15-minute walk from all eight schools.
- Students keep journals with their observations and data during their outdoor walks, and each grade focuses on a specific topic like insects, regional birds and the watershed.
Dive Insight:
Experiential learning opportunities can give students who aren’t always engaged in classrooms a chance to thrive. Many school districts incorporate programs like Outward Bound as enrichment activities over school breaks or the summer, but others, like Plumas, embed them in the school day.
The World Ocean School allows students to spend anywhere between a couple hours and an entire semester at sea. They learn life lessons on the water as well as concrete academic ones in math, physics, language arts and more. President and co-founder Abby Kidder said behavior problems tend to go away on the Roseway, a 137-foot schooner, because there’s so much to engage students.