Day 65 October 20, 2009 LACOSS Visit

Tuesday, October 20, 2009-Day 65
This morning we awoke from the comforts of the outdoor science school LACOSS’s cabin beds. This was different from the front porch of Summit Adventure that we have been calling home. 7:00 a.m. was the time for chow circle leaving plenty of time for the group to eat breakfast, clean up, shower or the like and join Christine for a little or a lot of help on what to look for out of outdoor education programs as we write our critiques.
At 9:15 a.m. we began walking down the path of LACOSS randomly splitting a part from the group to join the gatherings of eager children planning to take part in a day of outdoor education. Jake and I separated from ECOEE to join a teacher named Julie for her classes’ day of Outdoor Ed. We began the day watching the kids answer nine different questions about sea shells and sea stars and I took note of how a “no wrong answer” approach was adopted by Julie as the kids answered the questions aloud.
From there we walked to the beach which was a part of the largest body of water I personally had ever seen, the Pacific Ocean. The waves were crashing and the wind was blowing as several surfers were doing their hobby and even more LACOSS children were piling on the shore. Immediately Julie spoke about tides and waves, including their differences and what causes them. From this we met up with another group of students including Nathan and Grant. This is when the life forms in tide pools were discussed, mainly that of the commonly called Sand crab. The life processes of these crabs were taught and the group then played a variation of Rock, Paper, Scissors which moved you along these life-lines.
Eventually we were to all attempt to catch sand crabs but first we had to wait for the tides to grow so we stopped for lunch.
“I don’t call it spare change because me and my cats share things.”-Howard Bailey Jr.
Soon after lunch it was time for crab hunting which the students thoroughly loved and enjoyed, especially the proclaimed “MVP” who captured no less than six crabs.
After the hunting it came time to part ways from the students and meet up with Greg the site director of LACOSS to ask questions and listen in on processes surrounding the school that I’ll never be allowed to work at. When this finished the group debriefed, ate, and was set free for a final night at LACOSS, J. Tree tomorrow!!
“Live High, Live Mighty, Live Righteously.”-Jason Mraz