Columbia River Studies as a Field Class
The Columbia River Studies class at Stevenson High school was conducted as
a field class. That is, as often as possible, students went into the field
to do stream studies, to analyze flora and fauna, to examine geologic
formations, to analyze the impact of a build environment--roads and structures--on
the land, and to see how human and natural communities had affected the
land.
The class did several field trips together, beginning with
- a three-day trip to get an overview of the Columbia River from Stevenson to Walla Walla on the Washington side and from Pendleton to Cascade Locks on the Oregon side.
Other field experiences included:
- conducting mini-site studies at the Wind River and Kanaka Creek
- touring Catherine Creek, a site managed by the U.S. Forest Service
- working with scientists at the Pierce Wildlife Refuge
- traveling downriver from Bingen through the Bonneville Dam locks on a tugboat
- hiking a Forest Service trail to Falls Creek, a tributary of the Wind River
On all of the trips, students collected data, learned from experts, and recorded their observations in journals. Elsewhere on this site, you can find examples of journal entries, field observation data, and the final projects students created