This is my dog, Meg. I love everything about her. Except for the clumps of hair that accumulate in the corner of the kitchen, or end up on my clothes as I rush out the door. But it’s not her fault. When I need a new coat, I can just go to a store and […]
“Are fires good or bad for the forest?” I ask my students. They respond with a variety of thumbs up and down. “Why are they bad?” I ask one of the more adamant students. “They kill animals!” He answers, and I can imagine the picture in his head: Bambi and all his friends crying as […]
Unless you live under a rock, you may have heard that in 2015/16 we are supposed to be experiencing an El Niño winter. The term “El Niño” gets tossed around quite a bit and some of us have come to accept it without even fully understanding what it means. For students coming to experience High […]
What do some of the greatest technological breakthroughs and innovations have in common? Brilliant, creative minds? Hours and hours of work? There is another common, and arguably under-credited, factor: NATURE. Rewind history to a young boy sitting in the grass watching the birds fly about in a cool afternoon breeze. The boy studies these birds […]
One of the last things students do while at High Trails is watch a world class performance of the Lorax, performed for them by their cabin instructors. This play is more than entertaining; it sparks great conversations between the students afterwards, discussing the pros and cons of the two main characters – the Lorax and […]
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 […]
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 […]
The 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing, China took place during the region’s rainy season – yet during the opening ceremony there was not a cloud in the sky and the multi-week event was nearly free from rain. Was China just lucky? China wasn’t lucky; they were prepared. The day before the opening ceremony, as a […]
Largely put together by staff member Laura Cerrato, here’s an old fashioned, printable field guide full of all the animals, plants, rocks and things you might find in our neck of the woods.
