Dragging shovels and delicately carrying small plants, fifth-graders from High Lakes Elementary School ran back and forth along the banks of the Deschutes River last week, perhaps unaware that they were studying science.

It may have been fun, but they were learning as they dug into the soil at the edge of Bend’s Riverbend Park and listed trees and shrubs they were planting: wood’s rose, red osier dogwood and spirea.

Having spent months studying the history and health of the Deschutes, testing its water quality and learning about riparian areas there as part of a Healthy Waters Institute program, the trip outside was almost a treat.

“This is where it all comes together,” said Kolleen Yake, education coordinator for the Healthy Waters Institute. “They get outside, get hands-on experience, and they learn more and care more about their home waters.”

The High Lakes students’ experience is part of a growing trend of trying to get students outside in an effort to connect them to their environment, turn off their iPods and cell phones, and learn a little in the process.

The movement is gaining so much strength that legislators in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have introduced the No Child Left Inside Act, which would provide funding for environmental instruction and outdoor learning programs. In short, it would make more common many things happening in Central Oregon schools.

‘Get out there and move’

Getting outdoors and learning in the process is something many schools organize individually.

Juniper Elementary students hike Pilot Butte regularly; students at Elk Meadow Elementary did a cleanup project at Mount Bachelor two years ago; and kids at Bear Creek Elementary restored the trail around their school and are preparing to start a 10-day marathon in which they run laps at recess each day. For some schools, it’s about teaching healthy lifestyles.

“They’re working on their aerobic fitness and endurance, and they just love it,” said Kaleo Renstrom, a physical education teacher at Juniper. “We try to encourage kids to get out there and move.”

For others, like High Lakes’ Bert Gottschalk, whose fifth-graders worked with Yake on the Deschutes River riparian areas, it’s a combination of things.

“We live in Central Oregon, and so it is one of the best environments for kids to be outside and learn about it. There’s so much rich diversity here that it just seems like a no-brainer to be out exploring our environment,” Gottschalk said. “Personally, as a teacher, I like to share that love of the outdoors with my students every year. We’re always involved with projects where we get outside and explore the world around us and ask questions as scientists.”

Water issues

The Healthy Waters Institute runs its programs through The Freshwater Trust, which operates locally in partnership with the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council. It’s been working with students since 2005 to increase education about rivers and streams, sometimes in conjunction with Wolftree, another environmental education program.

Sisters High School students work on the Whychus Creek restoration, while various schools from around Bend do work at Shevlin Park, Elk Lake and along the Deschutes River.

Those students’ work will culminate on May 14 at a watershed summit, where they’ll present their accomplishments.

Gottschalk said his students seem to thrive outside.

“There are kids that just learn better visually or kinesthetically,” he said. “It’s so useful to tie in that outside element, especially with young kids, because they see a connection and it helps their learning. And I feel strongly that kids need to know the area they live in. … And then we trick them and teach them, too.”

‘Keep it clean’

They seem to have learned.

“We’ve been studying this a long time,” said Gabe Hall, 11. “We want the world to be the best it can and keep it clean.”

Brittni Weber, 11, said the planting and watershed lessons made her value where she lives.

“We shouldn’t just take for granted that we live in a beautiful place,” she said. “We should make it that much better.”

That is music to Yake’s ears. As the education coordinator for the Healthy Waters Institute, she’s discovered that students don’t really get attached to the watershed until they spend time at the river.

“I think all the education information is important, but when you have your hands in the dirt is when you truly begin to connect to the environment and develop your own connection,” she said.

Gabe said he plays outside all the time.

“I’m pretty much outside 24/7,” he said, mostly playing basketball or other sports rather than hanging out in the wilderness.

For Yake, getting students into a natural environment is different than giving them structured sport activities.

“The environment itself is less contrived. It’s still an urban park right in the middle of the city, but there’s a real flowing river there,” she said. “It’s not a concrete playground or basketball court. … And also, the activities themselves are less structured.”

Getting the students outside and committed to their local environment, Yake believes, is an investment for the future.

“There are hundreds of organizations around the state of Oregon that are spending a lot of money on both small and large restoration projects to try to (restore) our rivers in Oregon,” Yake said. “But we know that if the community is not aware of this work and is not aware of their role in protecting … the rivers and streams, if they’re not aware of that, they will not stay restored and all that work and investment will be for naught.”

D.C. support

Brad Smith and Terrence Harlowe, both 11, don’t think about it quite as deeply, but they’ve got the general concepts.

They were on the river last week planting trees and loving every minute of it.

“Kids learn more outside,” Terrence said. “I don’t know why, but we get to see a lot of science and math things.”

In that vein, some congressmen, including Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Portland, and Rep. David Wu, D-Portland, are looking to give environmental education some federal support. The No Child Left Inside Act, which was introduced in the Senate and House on Earth Day, would authorize funding for states to teach environmental classes, and also would fund outdoor learning activities at schools and other environmental education centers, among other things. Similar bills have been proposed before and failed.

Camping to learn

In the meantime, area schools continue to try to achieve results on their own.

In Crook County, teachers and community members united in the face of budget cuts to save the sixth-grade outdoor school program in which students spend five days at Suttle Lake Camp.

Lori Meadows, a sixth-grade teacher who helped get a $23,000 grant to keep the outdoor school program afloat, said the program is almost a rite of passage in the community. Years ago, dozens of Oregon school districts offered outdoor school for sixth-graders, but that has gone by the wayside with budget cuts.

“It’s really important for them to be out there and away from their families for a week,” Meadows said. “And away from cell phones and iPods and TVs.”

Each day, students go on hikes and learn about forestry, plants, wildlife and water.

“They love it. It doesn’t matter if it’s raining or snowing,” Meadows said. “They don’t care, they’re having … fun and doing so many things that they don’t realize they’re learning.”

Tom Mottl, outdoor recreation planner for the Bureau of Land Management, is working with the Crook County School District on an expansive curriculum that involves significant time outdoors.

“The natural resources education program is a quite complex, large program that has the component of kids outdoors, where kids do get outside instead of sitting in a classroom, and they do stuff in the real world of nature,” Mottl said.

The program just started this fall, but it’s already growing. In early April, Trout Unlimited, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and BLM joined forces to offer a weekend program that Mottl said combined “conservation, education and recreation.” Students put signs on the Crooked River to alert visitors where fish spawning beds are located, then learned about macro-invertebrates before an afternoon of fly-fishing.

“We got kids outside, we were educating kids and then there was that recreation,” Mottl said. “That to me, in essence, captures the vision of what (the natural resources education program) is about.”

The BLM also sponsors a program for Crook County students called Chimney Rock Days, in which students visit the Crooked River for a variety of sessions that range from archaeology to information on fish.

“We have a program building in Crook County and I don’t think anybody’s got such an ambitious vision as this program,” Mottl said.

‘Out into the field’

And that’s just the start of it. Crook County High School biology teacher Brian Wachs is pioneering the natural resources education program, and he’s having great results.

Wachs does the vast majority of his teaching outdoors. When he’s in a classroom, he brings in specialists from agencies like the U.S. Forest Service and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, as well as private-sector groups. They’ve studied water quality and fish biology, learned to identify plants and animals, even learned to fly-fish.

“I lay foundations, then they go out into the field and put it to use,” Wachs said.

Wachs asked his students to write grants for a project they might be interested in doing. Two of his students have already gotten a grant to work this summer outside, where they’ll map weeds around the area and then add the information to maps used by the BLM and other government agencies. That information will be used so landowners can spray the area more carefully for weeds.

“This makes it so it becomes a reality to walk outside and do something. … The world around them gains more color,” Wachs said. “It’s not just skills, but it’s a lifestyle.”