Author Archive | hightrails

Last week I had a student who tried as hard as he could to answer any question he could with a reference to the car company Bugatti. I would be teaching about the importance of conserving fossil fuels, and he was thinking about a car that gets 13 mpg on the highway and 3 mpg […]

As we watch CNN and MSNBC and other national news reports it is easy to get bogged down in the reports that our environment is only getting worse, and that the human race is too selfish to make the sacrifices and efforts needed to improve our environment. Because of this, it is very easy to […]

Scientists are once again working to find ways to protect wildlife habitat and sensitive ecosystems from an oil spill. This work is happening while studies are still being done to determine the full effects of these and other past oil spills. New Zealand’s Biggest Sea-Accident in History: On October 5, 2011, a cargo ship headed […]

The California Environmental Protection Agency, partnering with a number of other organizations, is introducing the Education and the Environment Initiative (EEI) to more than 1,000 school districts. The initiative is designed to boost environmental literacy, and is the first of its kind in the US. The curriculum spans Kindergarden to twelfth grade with 85 units […]

Pollination is very important to the survival of plants around the world. When we think of typical pollinators, we see visions of hummingbirds, bats, bees, butterflies, moths and even the wind. As the populations of various pollinators, such as bees, drop for unknown reasons, scientists are becoming more focused on different ways flowers, crops and […]

I remember a phone conversation I once had with my father, a news junky, during a season at an outdoor education center in Ohio. He told me he had good news: the war had ended. I was a little shocked. I had not heard the news in months and had no idea we had sent […]

Chris Wright Most people spend a lot of time working; eight hours a day for normal people, usually more if you work in education. The thought of spending that amount of time each day being unhappy is scary and fortunately alien to me, but lots of people live like that. For the most part, people […]

Hey Instructors! Did you remember to thank Larry, Chris, Kevin, Greg, John or Zoeanne in the Bucket of Love (our weekly congratulatory hit list)?  If you appreciated the roots being removed from the sewer line, kudos go to Larry the plumber.  If you were a fan of the heat in your cabin or the warmth […]

As many of you know I recently moved to a new house in Big Bear (thanks again for the help moving).   The house is awesome, but as with all things, will need some work to get it just the way we want.  This blog is not going to be about interior design; talk to my […]

High Trails offers a diverse learning experience for each and every student once they step off those yellow buses into the heart of nature. Throughout the day students explore standard science content through our diverse classes using experiential learning and personal discovery that goes beyond any classroom. In the evenings they learn about the creatures […]

A couple weeks ago, I had this great group of students.  They were helpful, kind, a bit rambunctious, and overall, very compassionate.  Then we got to our adventure course; the time when teamwork shines, and things proved to be very interesting.  During the A-Frame activity, I noticed that the boys were very vocal, while most […]

Some time in early June of last year, I was browsing a school supply/trinket store in Changsha, China. I was amusing myself reading the covers of the notebooks, which were decorated with bizarre “chinglish” phrases. The grammar was terrible and most of them made no sense at all. However, hidden among the stacks I found […]

I’m 13,000 ft above the ground with sweaty palms, and an accelerated heart rate. The wind roars as I approach the door. At this time there is only one way to reach solid ground: jump! I check in with my instructor and assume my position in the door. Crouched down head between my knees, I […]

“ Homesickness is the distress or impairment caused by an actual or anticipated separation from the specific home environment or attachment objects.” When students experience homesickness it usually presents itself as sadness through a possible stomachache or a headache. When you are homesick you are missing all the “normal” everyday people or things in your […]

At High Trails, one of the activities we do with students in the cabin is a community building exercise called Tribes. During initial training, in my very first Tribes circle, our trainer Bip told us that this was the main reason students wanted to stay here come the end of the week. I was a […]

I have this bad habit of watching nationally broadcast news programs, specifically NBC Nightly News.  What can I say; I just have a thing for Brian Williams.  While each program typically ends with a “Making a Difference” segment about good people on our planet doing small things that make a big difference, so much of […]

We are here. We made a conscious decision to pack our bags and move to southern California. We searched online for a job that fit our interests and expectations, and here we are. We all chose High Trails Outdoor Science School. But why? Was the job posting a huge grab, or the website so intriguing […]

Over the past 20 years, it has been nothing short of amazing to witness technological advancement at its finest.  We’ve gone from Atari to Wii, from mix tapes to iphones, and cartoons to CGI.  The digital revolution has yielded so many important additions in the fields of math and science, and by the explosion of […]

So, its March…that means if you have been here from the start of the year, you’ve been dealing with codes and homesick students for 19 weeks.  You’ve probably read the Wump World at least 10 times and walked to and from Cedar Valley who knows how many times. You’ve been living and working with the […]

Sandy was homeless. He had been homeless for more than ten years. I’m not sure where he slept; I’m pretty sure he did not know until it was time to sleep. The homeless are not allowed to panhandle in Chattanooga restaurants, but Sandy was different. He rode an old bicycle that looked like it had […]

When trying to figure out what I was going to write about in my blog this week, I had lots of different ideas.  The power of positivity and meditation.  Our eating habits and how they affect the way we feel and work.  The importance of people in our lives.  These subjects were what I began […]

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 […]

…for every exclamation point new staff type in their emails about initial travel plans out to High Trails, I’d probably buy a tamale from the little Mexican bakery place in Redlands.  Jessie had seven exclamation points in her email alone.  Mary had four more!  Staff training is one of my favorite parts of my job […]

Approximately 10,000 years ago a tremendous change began to occur for our species when we began to abandon our lives of hunting and gathering and started settling down farming the land we inhabited. This switch allowed for the rapid growth of our ancestors population and the development of what we now consider modern culture. However, […]