Sports
Medford,
mJTMBUNE
SECTION B
MEDFORD, OREGON, SUNDAY. JULY 14, 1963
PAGES 1 to 8
Outdoor Hduccrtiomi
Workshop for Teachers
Features
By MARGIE GOOD
Mail Tribune Staff Writer
Oregon is a state with many lakes, streams and tall
trees. And yet with all of nature's world around, Jew
people know how to act in nature's back yard.
For the past two weeks Southern Oregon college has
been conducting a workshop to help alleviate this prob
lem. The unique workshop completed its session yester
day. The course was Outdoor Education, and it was the
second year the course has been taught at SOC.
Purpose of the course was to teach students to utilize
the outdoors and to facilitate and enrich the learning
processes of students. This could Involve school field
trips or camping trips.
The underlining
conservation.
theme of the entire course was
I
During lunch most of the campers ate silting on logs,
with their plates in their hands, but Russ Werner and Jess
Loffer both of Grants Pass, wanted some of the comforts
of home and built themselves a table out of fallen timber.
The workshop class was composed of 12 school teach
ers from southern Oregon and northern California. It
is hoped these teachers will be able to help their students
learn more about their environment.
Eight different fields were covered in the two-week
workshop. Weather, forestry, natural history of the
area, camp craft, astronomy, wildlife and bird study,
and map and compass reading, and the relationship
between the different fields were studied.
Dr. Alex Petersen and Dr. Chester Squire, both of
the SOC staff, Dr: Elmo Stevenson, president of SOC,
and Don Crawford, principal at Keno, were instructors
for the three-hour credit course.
During the two-week session, the class took several
trips and held most of their class periods in Lithia park.
Trips were taken to the weather station in Medford,
to the fish hatchery at Fish lake, and the class accompa
nied Bob Paeth, soil conservation service agent for this
area, to a local farm to study soil conservation.
The workshop ended with a three-day camping trip
at Fish lake. The class roughed it, learning to build fires
and to cook food. Thursday, the first day at the camp,
the class feasted on stew and biscuits on sticks for lunch
and round steak for dinner.
Demonstrations on finding food in the wilderness
were given. They were all instructed on how to fish,
and the lucky ones who caught fish got to cook and eat
them.
The students consummated the two-week course by
taking a three mile hike through part of the 40 acres
SOC owns in that area. On the hike they used maps
and compasses.
The school supplied food, water and tents. Students
supplied their own sleeping bags.
The idea of outdoor education is a new idea in Ore
gon. Oregon State university was the first college in
Oregon to offer the course. At present OSU and SOC
are the only' schools in the state that offer such a
program.
There is only one county in Oregon that has an
The Outdoor Education workshop spent the last three days of their session at Fish lake. The main cooking site was
located in a clearing near the lake. It was soon turned into a scene of seeming confusion as everyone rushed around to
gather rocks for the fire sites and wood for the fires. Class members were graded on how well they went about pre
paring the campsite.
outdoor program. Crook county schools take the sixth
grade camping every year. Of the 200 students who are
in the sixth grade, one-third are taken camping each
week until every student has gone camping. The county
has been doing this since 19S8.
In 1957, Dr. Irene Hollcnbeck, of Southern Oregon
college, took a pilot group from the fifth grade of West
Side school to Soda Springs for a camping trip. This
was the first time such a trip had been made In Oregon.
A tri-county council has been set up between Jackson,
Josephine, and Klamath counties to study an outdoor
program for southern Oregon.
Dr. Petersen, chairman of the council slated, "Klam
ath Falls is interested in outdoor education and Is look
ing into a site at Varney creek. Klamath could be the
next county to start an outdoor program." The purpose
of the council is to promote outdoor education and pre
serve sites for outdoor education.
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Ed Knapp, Central Point, and Bob Austin, Fort Jones, Calif., watch as Dr. Alex Peter
sen shows them how the camp fire site should be laid out. The students divided Into four
groups and each group built Us own camp fire. Before workshop participants traveled to
Fish lake for three-day camp out, they were shown how to prepare the fire site.
A 1
Compass reading is something every student of the woods should know. It is included
In the curriculum. Charles Pell, Mrs. Coca Pervorse, Ten Mile, Ed Knapp, Central Point,
and Russ Werner, Grants Pass, double check a compass reading during a field trip to
Lithia Park,
Each group had to prepare its own food. For the first meal in camp, stew and bis
cuits were the main dish. Above Mrs. L. R. Thomas, Talent, and Mrs. Eileen Mallery
start to prepare some biscuits while Mrs. Florence Helms waits her turn.
41
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A group of students arrive at the campsite after being ferried across Fi.sh lake hy Don Crawford, Keno. The road
into the tamn is unarcessable except by pickup truck. Mrs. Eileen Mallery, Grants Pass, Miss Jeanette Schmidt, North
Bend. Mrs. Florence Helms, Riridle. and Mrs. J. R. McMillion, Riddle, prepare to leave the runabout after being ferried
across the lake. Dr. Alex Petersen lends a helping hand.
J- 'v L
Students were kept busy on their three day stay at
Fish lake with hikes, laying out nature trails, conking and
other subjects. However, there was always time for a cup
of black, hot camp roffce. Ed Knapp, chief eoffew watcher,
pours out the first cup of coffee for Charles Pell.
J
One of the first Jobs completed after everyone reached the camp was the job of setting
up the tents. Lost completely In the Job at hand are Bob Austin and Russ Werner In tht
tent, and Jess Loffer studying the problem from outside.