2019

Outdoor School (ODS) is a place where summer camp and school collide. It provides a hands-on learning environment and offers opportunities in ways that schools often do not. One of the goals of ODS is to help students understand that they have a voice, both in the classroom and outside of it.

Photo courtesy of Grant Magazine

On Monday, Sept. 30 at the Lakeview OSU Extension Office, Southern Regional Coordinator Amy Hoffman and OSU Extension Assistant to the Program Leader, Rita Bauer, visited Lakeview for a public meeting to educate local teachers, administrators, parents and students about outdoor school possibilities. 

Photo courtesy of Lake County Examiner

Oregon State University Extension Service and Oregon State Parks are partnering to offer a new program called Get Out There Together, which encourages statewide Outdoor School participants to explore their Oregon state parks. The program offers three free one-day parking permits to state parks to students who participated in statewide Outdoor School during the 2018-19 school year.

Photo by Joe Kline

Baker School District sixth-graders headed for the Anthony Lakes area of the Elkhorn Mountains last week for this year’s Outdoor School experience.

Photo courtesy of Baker City Herald

The South Santiam Watershed Council’s new education coordinator has a lot of ideas to keep local students busy. Mike Vernon, 34, has succeeded Angela Clegg, who went to work in the city planning office last year. Vernon has finished his first Outdoor School for Sweet Home sixth-graders and an Outdoor School for Lebanon. He’s also been busy getting to know the nine members of the Youth Watershed Council.

Photo courtesy of The New Era

After an electrical fire demolished the lodge at Camp Lutherwood in Cheshire last month, camp staff and volunteers were devastated at the loss. They surveyed the charred remains of the camp’s only indoor gathering space and kitchen and faced the daunting fact that there was no shared space for kids as the camp approached its busiest year of outdoor schools and summer programs in decades.

Photo courtesy of The Register-Guard (Andy Nelson)

Sixth-grade students get hands-on learning experiences at Outdoor School. Teachers are able to extend classroom subjects such as science and language arts, and students get an outdoor experience free from electronic devices.

Photo courtesy of the Crook County School District Facebook Page

Sixth-graders in Ontario School District went to take a three-day, three-night trip to the Oregon Coast April 22-25 as a new state initiative dubbed Outdoor School. All 183 students in sixth grade throughout the district planned to attend the Outdoor School. 

Photo courtesy of Ontario School District

The Four Rivers Cultural Center was packed Friday with teachers from Malheur County and some from neighboring counties to learn about Oregon Outdoor School now that the Oregon Legislature funded the program so every fifth grade and sixth grade student is able to participate.

Photo courtesy of The Argus Observer