At Redwood Day , we know that hands-on experiences are essential to student learning. Starting in kindergarten, walking field trips to the local public library enhance the excitement about learning to read. Building Rube Goldberg projects solidifies learning the scientific principles behind simple machines. Starting in fourth grade, experiential learning takes on an even larger and more exciting dimension as our students embark on annual outdoor education  field trips for 3-5 days.

 

In grades 4-8, students participate in carefully selected outdoor education programs that foster independence, teamwork, adventure and exploration, leadership, and environmental awareness. This exposure to new environments, friends, teachers, and challenges also helps them to explore their own values, interests, and abilities. Nothing delights our teachers more during "outdoor ed" than to see the look of astonishment and joy on students' faces when they discover, while climbing a mountain or trying to solve a difficult problem, that they are capable of far more than they thought during the regular Monday-to-Friday school week.

 

Outdoor ed starts with the annual MOSAIC experience in the spring of fourth grade. Many children look forward to this trip as a grand adventure. For others, the thought of sleeping away can stir mixed emotions. Learning to survive, and thrive, in a new environment is an essential life skill to be developed on the path to young adulthood. With its focus on diversity, MOSAIC helps develop skills in problem-solving, communication, and teamwork that are essential in learning to manage both independence and interdependence. When I visited our fourth-graders at MOSAIC last year, I saw our students building relationships with other students from other schools and learning how to collaborate across cultures.

 

This week, Head of School John Loeser and Lower School Director Denise Breland visited our fifth-graders at Walker Creek Ranch. One group of students was getting ready to go on a hike, another was working in the garden, and others were doing a team-building exercise. While they were happy to see the visitors, they were more excited by the activities in which they were so fully engaged. We know that at the end of the week, they will return home tired and dirty, but also proud of their many accomplishments and their work in habitat study.

Science becomes an even more central component in outdoor ed at the Middle School level at RDS. This year, planned Middle School trips are:

• Sixth grade to Pinnacles to study earth science
• Seventh grade to Mount Cross in the Santa Cruz mountains for work on ecology and environmental stewardship
• Eighth grade to Catalina Island with a focus on marine science 

Regardless of destination, life lessons are at the core of each experience and reflect Redwood Day's commitment to overall developmentally-focused education. Pushing oneself to learn new physical skills and the social education of living in intentional community 24/7 provide amazing growth-points in psycho-social development. Outdoor education reconnects urban-dwelling students to the natural world -- and to themselves -- in a way that is far different from the "regular" school year and is an essential complement to the deep learning that happens in the classroom, the lab, the art studio, and the gym.