Author Archive | hightrails
COVID-19 Protocols
High Trails is in the cross-section of school and organized camp. Legally we follow the rules and regulations for organized camps set by the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health; however, 100% of our clients are schools. Consequently, our protocols mirror the guidelines that schools are using while still meeting or exceeding county requirements. […]
Trail Games #1- Kyle O’Dea
So what do you do while hiking with a large group of students through the forest? Play games of course! Here at High Trails Outdoor Science School we have an arsenal of games we play and songs we sing when we are out on the trail. This arsenal of ours continues to grow with the […]
Big Bear Distance Learning Day Camp
Distance Learning Daycamp High Trails Outdoor Science School and YMCA Camp Oakes LOCATION: YMCA Camp Oakes in the Lake Williams neighborhood CHECK IN AND CHECK OUT: Check in is 7:30am to 8:15am. A health screening, including a temperature check, will be performed on every student, every day. The person dropping the child off will […]
Don’t Rain on My Parade! Shannon Diaz
Have you ever had to teach students while outside in the rain or snow ? Here at High Trails, we hike and teach our students in three different seasons with all sorts of weather. Whether we have rain, sun, sleet or snow, the weather can either make or break our students’ experiences and our classroom […]
Large Group Management 101 – Leslie Urban
Most of the time at High Trails, students are in small groups, but there are a couple times during the week that the whole school comes together. These large group activities tend to be the fun activities happening at night – snakes class, campfire, even our meals have interesting informative programming lead by staff. A […]
Live The Life You Love – Hillary Cantu
I feel very privileged to have grown up in Southern California, I was raised at the beach and spent most of my years growing up in the ocean. I learned very young about the beauty the earth has to offer, and the ocean was my teacher. I also learned very young about the importance of […]
Bird Sounds of Spring – Danny Walden
Spring is here, and it’s an exciting time! Our bird friends in the San Bernardino mountains begin to sing, and these year-round populations are complemented by a whole new host of migrants. To many people, so many new birds and songs present a daunting challenge. How in the world do we identify all of them?! […]
Frontloading and Debriefing – Shannon Diaz
“On your mark, get set, go!” “Huh? I don’t even know what we’re playing!” Have you ever tried playing a game or doing an activity that wasn’t explained completely or didn’t make sense to you? This can be confusing and frustrating for everyone involved. In order to successfully set our students up for success and […]
Flip Distractions into Discussions: Verbal Jiu-Jitsu- Alex Eisenreich
You are a Teacher. So you probably know that Random Tangent Student. The one that takes extra prompting to engage in class; the one that needs redirection to stay on task; the one who doesn’t volunteer answers or questions during discussion; the one that you often catch staring off into the woods and seemingly never […]
Talking With School Teachers – Nick Miller
Like most of you, I often times wonder about the impact we make on students and what they actually learn and take away from their experience here at High Trails. We are in the unfortunate position that we do not get to see the long term effects of the hard work and efforts we put […]
Camouflage! – Hope Batcheller
“Camouflage!” I yell, and start counting to twenty. I hear the rustling of students scattering in every direction, rushing to find good hiding places behind thick-trunked trees or downed logs. It is the middle of our “Furry Friends” class, and we have been discussing mammalian adaptations to avoid predation. The activity, Camouflage, is like a […]
Keeping It Fresh In Year Three – Nasser Rihan
It is that time of year again. The leaves are falling from the oak trees, the wind is becoming cooler and ever more crisp, and for me that means one thing: another year at High Trails Outdoor Science School! This year will mark my third year at High Trails and for most in the Outdoor […]
“Whatever GRABBSS their attention…” – Shane Hyre
Team Discovery Hike: it’s the first activity you do with your field group on their first day at High Trails. It’s time for the group to discover who you are, where they are, and what they are doing this week. It’s also a time for you, the instructor, to discover your field group and beyond […]
Burn Bright, Not Out: Dan Bowman
It was 1998, my first summer in outdoor education. We had 10 weeks with students from the most challenging neighborhoods in Cincinnati, OH. Each group was out at our rustic semi-permanent tent site for one week. It scared them. They had never heard the forest’s noises before. They had never seen dark like that before. […]
Taking Applications For Granted – Driz Cook
I believe in not taking things for granted. In the early years of High Trails, staff would start to talk about the next school year and I would stop them in their tracks. “If there is a next year” I would counter. “If students learn, have fun, and stay safe this year”. I would keep […]
Money, Laws, and Fundraising in Today’s Schools
California Education Code Section 35330 states that “No group shall be authorized to take a field trip or excursion authorized by this section if a pupil who is a member of an identifiable group will be excluded from participation in the field trip or excursion because of lack of sufficient funds”. Wait a second… How […]
Can ONE RIDDLE last the WHOLE WEEK? Shane Hyre
It’s the best book of riddles I have ever known. Less about jokes, zingers, and slap-yourself-in-the-head punch lines, The Lateral Logician is a collection of thinking problems with puzzles, clues, and solutions. Here’s a bit from the introduction of this book: “Edward de Bono first coined the phrase ‘lateral thinking’ to refer to a process […]
Can Sunscreen Hurt A Baby Seal? Kelsey Wentling
Like any young person dutifully fulfilling their role as a “20-something,” my car is host to an eclectic mix of random junk. In the front seat alone you will find a smooth, hamburger-sized rock I use to hammer in the stakes of my tent, a nearly spent roll of neon pink duct tape, and a […]
Are You Going To Eat That? Colin Veerman
“Pass the ketchup! Who wants seconds? Are you going to eat that?” Phrases like this are music to my ears. Not because I‘m crazy about my condiments or I like getting kids to fill their bellies with food, but rather it’s the intentions behind such an act of passing the ketchup bottle and empowering them […]
Calling All Lunatics: A Deeper Look into Tides – Alex Rice
Have you ever watched the moon rise over a silhouette of Ponderosa and Jeffrey pines, mountain ridges looming in the background? Ever wondered how that beautiful moon affects us down here on earth? Here at High Trails, we get to wonder that very thing each week during our astronomy class. We encourage students to think […]
Why Bees Are Disappearing – Jaimie Spetseris
Really Cool Thing about the Spring Season: new plants pop up left and right, and beautiful flowers are in bloom. Safety Consideration of the Spring Season: it’s the time of year when we must warn our students to be careful when examining plants, such as the manzanita bush, because their flowers are bee magnets. […]
The Beaches of La Jolla, CA – Joe Crockett
There is a magical place, not far from our mountain home, where environmentally conscious soul searchers rub shoulders with Lamborghini driving eccentrics. This is a place where the sun shines 300 days a year and rain is feared; where average people become near-mythical beings when they place both feet on a plank of foam and […]
A Visit To Jellick Elementary – David Nakic
Being from Chicago, I have never been to an elementary school in Southern California. So, I was curious to see how some of the students I worked with at High Trails function in their California classroom. Jellick Elementary has been coming up here since 2003, all with the same dedicated teacher; Nancy Buck. This school […]
Why do male seahorses give birth? Joanna Leach
When teaching students, have you ever gotten a question that stumped you? If the answer is no, then I applaud you on your vast knowledge of everything. For the rest of us, we can make an educated guess based on prior knowledge or encourage the questioner to do the same. Sometimes a thought-provoking question from […]
The Snow Plant That Doesn’t Photosynthesize – Emily Hermes
The Snow Plant is rumored to have been a favorite plant of John Muir. I, too, share that fascination with this plant/parasite, not just for its bizarre appearance, but also for its interesting process of acquiring nutrients. To start, the plant is distinguishable by its physical characteristics. Snow Plants have often been described by my […]
Improv-ing Education – Cass Language
Friday afternoon— busses are delayed due to snow, and you find yourself with 15 students for an hour longer than you expected. Or maybe your boss tells you to lead a 10 minute activity for all of the staff bright and early on a Monday morning. Think quick…or better yet, just improv! There are many […]
Summer Camp? No Way! – Shannon Diaz
“So you’re a camp counselor?” “No, Ma! I teach at an Outdoor Science School.” “Isn’t that the same thing?” We instructors at High Trails Outdoor Science School get asked this question time and time again when anyone asks us what we do for a living. It can be frustrating because we are NOT a summer […]
Life 101: 5 Lessons I’ve Learned Since Coming to High Trails – Emily Trostel
There are shared qualities that drive us to be High Trails’ instructors. Mostly, we all share a love of the outdoors. We tend to discover early on that working in an office, teaching in a classroom, or learning in a passive manner do not work for us. We work hard and play hard. And since […]
Change the Channel to Island Time – Hollyann Duskin
Imagine an island paradise: rolling hills and exquisite wildflowers, turquoise water crashing into rocky sea caves, and creatures found nowhere else on earth. Although this may sound like a faraway dream, it’s actually right here in our backyard! Channel Islands National Park Channel Islands National Park encompasses five of the eight islands off the coast […]
A Life Lesson from My Brother: Heather Plazak
Can you imagine being 8 years old and being told you have a disease that has no cure? Or finding out that your life expectancy is at best ten more years? Can you imagine living in a body that slowly breaks down, despite the most earnest of pleas or the most advanced medical technology available? […]
Two-eyed, One-beaked, Flying, Rotten Carcass Eaters! Laura Hughes
In Little World, our class about decomposers, we discuss the four main types of decomposers. But the scavengers are the ones that often hook the students. Large, charismatic, and easy to visualize, students are always eager to share what they know. Week after week, I am amazed at how little students actually know about one […]
Big Bear Lake Field Trip – Jessica Fangman
These days most of the California population is concerned about water. Are we going to run out? Who is in charge of our water resources? How can we conserve and protect what we have? As for High Trails instructors, we sought to expand our minds and learn more about the the Muncipal Water District, the […]
The Classic Book Silent Spring – Haley Cushing
When I ask my students during our class on birds, Feathered Friends, what sort of effects chemicals, pesticides, and insecticides might have on an ecosystem, they immediately respond with negative answers. These words trigger reactions about bad chemicals that kill plants, poison animals, and contribute to general destruction of the environment. However, only fifty years […]
What is your “Dawn Wall”? Barb Bemis
On January 14, 2015, history was made…in the rock climbing world at least. Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson succeeded in free climbing the Dawn Wall on El Cap, Yosemite National Park. 19 days. 32 pitches of climbing. 19 bloody fingertips (Tommy is missing a finger). 7 years of planning, determination, failures, setbacks, broken bones, and […]
Shared Classrooms? Shane Hyre
We teach both primarily 5th and 6th grade students. Is there really that big a difference in that one year of life that affects how teachers teach and students learn? Recently, I had the privilege to observe a 5th & 6th grade classroom in Lucerne Valley, a desert town on the northern side of the […]
Can Organic Be A Pollutant? Ivy Price
“Has anyone heard of the word ‘organic’”? I asked my trail group to begin our discussion of pollution in our Water Wonders class. “Yeah! It’s the food my mom buys at the grocery store,” replied one of the students. Though correct, this wasn’t the response I was looking for and made me think about how […]
Keeping Your Class Focused – David Nakic
Take a seat, be patient, and focus on learning some of these great classroom management techniques. Your teaching will improve (and you will be happier…). The physical freedom in the forest isn’t something a lot of our students have experienced before. Their desire to explore and this new found freedom can often be distracting and […]
Teaching with Music – Jordan Rowell
“Alright class, it’s time to earn our beads for our Furry Friends class. Let’s review what you can remember about adaptations of mammals. John, tell me at least one characteristic of a mammal?” Uhhh oh is right. I just taught this to them. However, I have a secret trick up my sleeve. “What about the […]
Is Astrology based on Science? – Arthur Tuttle
A long time ago, in a galaxy very very close, man looked up and wondered: What’s out there? Are we alone? What are those things in the sky? Do those things affect what is happening here? Although their technology was primitive, their minds and creativity were not, and so Astrology was born. Artology Astrology has […]
Outdoor Educators go to the Zoo – Colleen McDonald
It is a brisk, sunny February afternoon and the Big Bear Alpine Zoo is teeming with curious faces. Families wander along pathways and toddlers are excitedly introduced to wildlife for the first time. There’s even a large, chatty and excited school group that follows a set of tour guides, getting a detailed account of everything […]
Purple Flying Elephants – Mark Lisak
Want to learn how to integrate storytelling into your classes? Read on… “Hello! You have hired me, Captain Mark, to take you to the Land of Purple Flying Elephants. The Purple Flying Elephants have taken your purple beads. To get them back we must sail across dangerous waters, cross peanut butter rivers full of acid, […]
Can Erosion and Illegal Trails Get Along? – Caroline Blake
At the University of Vermont (UVM), I remember not wanting to walk on the concrete sidewalk between the Student Center and the Library because it was not convenient. Instead, I joined thousands of other students who took the shortcut straight across the grass of the University Green. In time our beautiful green had a noticeable […]
How Do You ACT Environmentally Aware? – Jaimie Spetseris
It’s my favorite environmental class at High Trails, and one that instructors are guaranteed to teach the most. In my mind, Environmental Awareness is the glue to all the pieces, the backbone to why care about the environment and perhaps, more importantly, how to care when it may seem our individual actions won’t solve major […]
Desalination: Take It with a Grain of Salt – Meagan Gibson
Being a Southern California native, it has always seemed ironic that California can be next to such a large body of liquid yet still lack access to reliable drinking water. When I ask students why water is important during our Water Wonders class, they always understand right away. We need it to drink, to grow […]
I SEE What You Mean: A Close Look at Light and Vision – Robert Donisch
Here at High Trails, one of the most discussed adaptations organisms have is that of sight. And we know what sight is: the ability for our eyes to detect light. But…how do we actually see? Why do we actually see what we do see? Questions of color blindness and issues of rods and cones often […]
Assembling California – Leslie Urban
Plate tectonics, and the idea that rocks could be “born” in one place then moved to another place to create a completely different environment, has fascinated me for years. I picked up John McPhee’s book, Assembling California, in the hopes of learning more about the geology of our region, and plate tectonics in general, to […]
3 Types of Navigation – Barbara Bemis
On their very first hike here, I ask students to describe where they are, big picture to little picture. Their answers generally start with the universe or solar system and work their way towards Angelus Oaks, Big Bear, or High Trails. It is exciting to see how interested they become in figuring out how many […]
Comprehending Crepuscular Creatures – Jessica Landgraf
“All right, ladies, what do you know about animals active in the night”? I ask this question to begin a class taught after sunset. The class, Nocturnal Nation, is designed to empower students to begin overcoming fears of the night by learning more about it. By the end of class, my students are able to […]
DIY! Build Your Own Forest – Alex Eisenreich
What do you get when you combine the efficiency of a car assembly line with a tree hugger? It’s not a robo-hippie; it’s Afforrestt. Founded by Subhendu Sharma, Afforrestt is a company with one mission: “to exponentially increase forest cover by actively conducting and contributing to afforestation activities worldwide.” 1 What is afforestation? Not to […]