Outdoor classes test students' mettle

Sisters High School's Interdisciplinary Exploratory Education (IEE) class pulled off its third annual fall expedition last week from October 17 to 21.

The class, comprised of 57 students and four teachers, is unique.

In an outdoor setting, students are taught language arts by Samara Spear; physical science is taught by Glen Herron; geography and social studies pertaining to the environment are covered by Rob Phelps, with Rand Runco taking care of physical education.

"This is the toughest thing in teaching I've ever done, but is also extremely rewarding in feeling like we're doing the right thing," said Spear.

The class is offered fall and spring trimesters and the overall goal is to study the Deschutes River watershed from headwaters to mouth.

Each trimester is capped with an expedition.

In the fall, students explore the Three Sisters Wilderness around Middle Sister and Demaris Lake. The spring expedition is a raft trip from Maupin to the mouth of the Deschutes.

Runco, who has a wealth of expeditions under his belt, is in charge of the adventures. He has lined up a group of volunteers who eagerly await his call to be leaders of the nine small groups of students when they are in the wilderness.

"These people love the mountains and being with kids," he said. "It wouldn't happen without them."

There are search and rescue personnel, nurses, emergency medical technicians, and mountaineers among them. They are all well versed in emergency procedures and logistics, proven by this year's smooth evacuation of a student by AirLife.

In addition to their adult leaders, each group has a student leader.

These are seniors who are part of Runco's Co-op P.E. class, an outdoor education class. These students are there as navigators, as the groups are mostly working off-trail.

They also act as mentors, having been through the experience of the expedition the previous year.

One of the goals of the expedition is to teach low-impact camping skills.

The activities are arranged so that the groups never see each other. Each group chooses their campsite within a general, pre-arranged area.

This allows a large number of people to be in the wilderness, but to be there in a quiet and subtle way, said Runco.

Each group's expedition lasted only three days, so getting to the activities required plenty of exertion.

"The fall expedition is really hard physically," said Runco. "On the second day, they cover close to 12 to 15 miles. It pushes everyone, even the athletes, so teamwork becomes important."

Indeed, teambuilding is one of the aspects that students and leaders find most rewarding.

Doug Green, fireman and EMT, led one of the groups.

"We had a student who was really struggling to keep up, but the whole group went at her pace, and they all got to the glacier in time to see the sunrise," he said.

Seeing the students bond, support each other and laugh together is a breath of fresh air for Green, who often sees the dark side of life in his work.

"This lets me see that 99 percent of kids are good," he said.

At Herron's water studies station, the students tested the quality of Soap Creek and looked at macro-invertebrates found in the creek.

Other activities required quiet reflection as students wrote in journals, composed poetry or completed sketches.

Spear had her language arts station set up at the base camp. This site was set up as the emergency station.

A wall tent and the supplies were brought in on pack horses.

"It was neat because this was different from any other station," said Spear. "It was a place to relax, reflect, and react."

Students rotated through base either before or after tackling Hayden Glacier on Middle Sister.

Kirk Metzger, who works for the Forest Service and is a search and rescue volunteer, was in charge of the glacier activities.

Students strapped on crampons and walked across the ice, marveling at the views of Central Oregon spread out below them.

"Getting to the glacier and seeing the world from there was unbelievable," said student Lena Womack.

"I also liked Mr. Phelps' station," said Womack. "We looked at and identified trees (at Demaris Lake), he talked about glaciers, and we looked at rock formations and other nature things. The trees were amazing; I felt like a midget, they were so huge."

The trip won good reviews.

"Afterwards, about 95 percent of the students felt it was great and would do it again," Runco said.