INDEPENDENCE, Ore. -- At a pond covered with weeds and algae, four muddy sixth-grade girls from Ash Creek Intermediate School scooped at the watery goop and then crowded around the treasures caught in their net.

“A freaky bug!” said Alyn Moncsko, looking up from the net.

“We caught some little bugs!” said Grace Peets.

The girls and their partners carefully dumped their prey into a watery tub then used a turkey baster to suck up the scuds they’d caught. Gently they squeezed the buggy water into an ice tray, where they could observe them with a magnifying glass.

All in a days work at the annual Polk County Outdoor School at the Oregon 4-H Conference and Education Center campgrounds about seven miles north of Ash Creek Intermediate School in Independence. The camp-out classes are presented by the Polk Soil and Water Conservation District with the help of dozens of volunteer instructors from local watershed councils and state agencies, teachers, loggers, farmers and student counselors.

Last week, 150 sixth-graders got a hands-on education in many things outdoorsy, including catching bugs, frogs and tiny fish that live in muddy ponds. During the three-day campout, the students rotated through more than a dozen stations where they participated in activities led by experts on agriculture, forestry, wilderness survival, watersheds and biological and environmental sciences.

At the forestry station, Dallas logger and former teacher Frank Pender directs a group of sweaty kids who are trying their hands at using a cross cut saw, aptly named the “misery whip” by those who’ve used them. Pender brought the historic two-person saws for the students to use after his short lecture on forestry practices.

“You can’t have a campfire tonight if you don’t cut the wood,” joked Michael Ahr of the Polk SWCD staff. Taking him seriously, Michael Villarreal, Gustavo Alvarado, and Kevin Alejandrez put their backs into cutting wood with a smaller bow saw, of the sort used by boys their age 100 years ago, Pender said.

“This is hard,” said Steven Warner, a 16-year-old Central High School junior who was among several volunteer counselors at the Outdoor School.

At forest-edged Pagoda Pond above the 4-H camp’s main hall, a group of students crowded to the railing on the dock to listen to Karen Hans, fish biologist for Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Hans delivered her lecture paddling in a kayak on the edge of the pond, lifting up fish traps to see what was in them.

“I need to know my fish if I want to catch them,” Hans said to the students on the dock. Cold-blooded fish tend to slow down and eat less when the temperature drops, Hans said. Chances of catching them are improved if you do a little research into habits, habitats and life cycles, she advised the students.

Is Outdoor School better than sitting in a classroom? “Yes,” said the four muddy girls in chorus back at the aquatic insect station.
“Except my hands are frozen stiff,” said Moncsko.

They had looked at the stars and planets through telescopes, learned how to make a shelter from branches and leaves, and had found signs of a bobcat trail through the camp. And after the daily classes, they sang “Do Your Ears Hang Low” and ate smores around the campfire, then returned to their cabins to apply gobs of make-up to each others’ faces and play truth or dare.

“I didn’t think it would be so fun,” said Peets.

The event is similar to the Polk SWCD’s Outdoor School held last spring for Dallas students. In the first part of last week, Pedee, Bridgeport and Perrydale students visited the Outdoor School’s courses. Jackie Hastings, Polk SWCD’s manager, said the school has become a huge part of the district’s education program. More than 3,600 volunteer and staff hours went into the Dallas school’s visit last spring and she estimated that at least that many hours or more went into last week’s fall program.