What is High Trails? It’s a place where schools send their students for a week in the woods, where they go on hikes, learn how to do archery, and sleep in cabins. It sounds a lot like summer camp. But there’s something that makes High Trails different, and if you’ve made it this far on the website you probably know what it is.

High Trails teaches classes that are aligned with California state science standards. This means that each class covers vocabulary and concepts that are integral to the California school curriculum. Also, these aren’t ordinary classes; they’re all taught outside in the San Bernardino National Forest.

At High Trails we value what we call “experiential education.” This means that instead of sitting at a desk, students here actually can experience what they’re learning.

Place Based Education

More specifically, what makes High Trails special is the opportunity for “place-based education.” This is the idea that we can take advantage of the place we live during our classes. Living here, sometimes we can forget that we live in a spectacular environment, surrounded by majestic mountains, freezing streams, and clear lakes, but the students are seeing all of this for the first time, and we as instructors can tie in what they are learning to their surroundings so they are more likely to remember it.

When we teach students that the Native Americans who used to live here (named the Yuhaviatam) ate Yucca flowers, they’re way more likely to remember if they get to taste them themselves. It’s simple; people connect more with information and will do a better job retaining it if it is immediately relevant.

So what does all this mean for classes here? It means that during water class, students are sitting by a river or lake, and have time to explore on their own. It means that while hiking students can learn names and stories about the plants, birds and other creatures that live in this forest. If they are on the lookout for Manzanita bushes so they can brush their teeth, constantly asking to borrow binoculars so they can check out a bird they just saw, or insist on stopping class so that they can watch a ground squirrel cache nuts for the winter, then they have been truly inspired.

When students are knowledgeable about the ecosystem around them, it is immediately relevant and interesting, and they can quickly make connections. After a long hike where we learned many edible native plants, one of my students told me, “now I can understand how the Yuhaviatam used to live here.” Even though I had taught them about how the Yuhaviatam used to live off the land, it took the experience of hiking and actually touching and seeing the plants for this student to make a lasting connection.

That’s what’s so magical about this place. Through the experience of place based education, students can have their own “ah- ha” moments, the sort that can never truly be taught. High Trails isn’t just about learning science outdoors; it is about learning science outdoors in the San Bernardino National Forest.

At High Trails Outdoor Science School, we literally force our instructors to write about elementary outdoor education, teaching outside, learning outside, our dirty classroom (the forest…gosh), environmental science, outdoor science, and all other tree hugging student and kid loving things that keep us engaged, passionate, driven, loving our job, digging our life, and spreading the word to anyone whose attention we can hold for long enough to actually make it through reading this entire sentence. Whew…. www.dirtyclassroom.com