(Kenton Parker (lower right) shows students from Hall District Elementary School a ringneck snake Friday at the Carneros Creek Outdoor Classroom at the Elkhorn Slough Foundation Protected Lands. Photo by Tarmo Hannula/Pajaronian)
LAS LOMAS — Just over the border into Monterey County, in a place where farmland surrenders to wildland and where a small creek has carved out a multifarious habitat for several species of bird and beast, lies a patch of land that educators have transformed into an outdoor classroom.
The Carneros Creek Outdoor Classroom is a project of Elkhorn Slough Foundation and Hall District Elementary School. It is located near the school, a tiny portion of the more than 4,000 acres protected by the foundation.
Some 90 fourth-graders from the school visited the space Friday, the final phase of the Be a Park Ranger Project, which aimed to turn them into outdoor enthusiasts and educators over the course of 11 visits.
The students spent time at the site learning about the habitats there – grassland, riparian, oak woodland and coastal scrub – and the plants and animals that live there.
They also built bird boxes, planted native species of plants and pulled up invasive ones.
But the hands-on lessons went well beyond traditional textbook learning.
The kids were also tasked with studying one of the habitats well enough to lead their own tour for a group of their first- and second-grade schoolmates.
This helped boost their research skills, introduced them to public speaking and taught them to work together, said fourth-grade teacher Alice Miller.
“It gives kids real-life exposure to a career they might not have previously considered,” Miller said. “It gives them a reason to do the work.”
Hall District Elementary School students get a chance to learn about a gopher snake. Photo by Tarmo Hannula/Pajaronian
Yaira Flores, 10, said she was surprised at the sheer number of living things that call the small space home.
“It’s interesting,” she said. “You can learn a lot from observing the animals.”
The students spent part of the day getting a close look at a ring-neck snake, an alligator lizard and a gopher snake trip leaders caught at the site, and which would be later released. They also watched dozens of birds that flitted about and let several types of bugs crawl on their hands.
Maylin Guzman, 10, said she enjoyed learning about the habitats, but particularly enjoyed becoming a teacher.
“I liked teaching the younger kids about it,” she said.
Last year, the outdoor classroom was a space so choked with plants and small trees that it was practically impassable, said Elkhorn Slough Foundation Community Outreach Manager Katie Pofahl.
“This is one of the first places we have adapted for public access,” she said.
In doing so, the foundation wanted a way to bring environmental education directly to children, and to foster a love of nature in a generation of young people that know about – and care for – the wild places that surround them.
Last school year, more than 270 students and chaperones visited the Outdoor Classroom.
“These are the people who will grow up here and protect it,” Pofahl said.
For information on Elkhorn Slough Foundation and the Reserve, visit www.elkhornslough.org.
