PORT ANGELES — The ceiling is a canopy of conifers and the floor is littered with sticks, grass and fir cones. There are no desks or chairs, and running around is encouraged.
This is the classroom setting every Wednesday from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Lincoln Park for 10 elementary school students in the Port Angeles School District’s ORCA program.
ORCA — Outdoor, Real-world, Child-centered Academic Program — is a new grant-funded pilot program created in partnership with Olympic Nature Experience (ONE) that combines distance learning, outdoor education and traditional classroom teaching for first- through fourth-graders at Seaview Academy, the district’s online education program.
Tutoring in fundamentals like reading and participation in small learning groups takes place at the Seaview Learning Center, 905 W. Ninth St., on Thursdays.
All other learning is done through the Buzz online platform the school uses.
The 22 total ORCA students can participate in just the outdoor or the just classroom component, or in both.
On this sunny, cool Wednesday morning, ONE teacher Andrea Low asked the 6- to 10-year-olds to line up between two small orange cones for a game of tag that involved picking an animal and running toward another set of cones about 25 yards away whenever they heard an instructor call out one of their animal’s features.
“Run if your animal has claws!” Seaview teacher Eric Pickens yelled.
Five boys and girls took off and tried to avoid “trees” — students who had been tagged “it” — on their way to the opposite set of cones.
“Run if your animal has scales!” Low yelled.
One student started running, while another’s tentative start suggested he wasn’t quite sure the animal he had chosen actually did have scales.
The activity related to the day’s theme, “engineering.”
Low explained:
“It’s a game, but it’s also about problem-solving and spatial awareness,” she said.
“This morning we built bridges with blocks,” Low said. “After every activity, we ‘debrief’ — that’s the most important part — where it’s about self-reflection and being aware of others around you.”
The outdoor class is highly structured and organized. Reading, activities and lessons all focus on that day’s theme, and every class includes time for students to find a spot on the grass or under a tree and write in their nature journals.
Then, it’s off for a short hike, a snack and more lessons.
Seaview Academy principal Mace Gratz said the school had been thinking about how it might offer an outdoor learning program when he happened to learn about the Washington State Office of Public Instruction’s Reimagine Education Project, which funds pilot projects that encourage innovative approaches to learning.
The school applied for the grant in the spring and received $175,000.
Grazt said that, without the funding, he would not be sure if the school could have secured the partnership with ONE.
“The grant was perfect because it allowed us to have that kind of funding flexibility and to actually be able to get it into action on a much grander scale than we would do otherwise,” Gratz said.
Seaview contracted with ONE to create a curriculum and provide instructional support for ORCA’s outdoor component.
Fourth-grader Grayson Hughes, 9, said one of his favorite things about ORCA’s outdoor program is eating his mom’s sandwiches for lunch.
Next to that?
“We get to play, and we don’t have to do math,” Hughes said.
That isn’t quite true, Low said.
“We actually do do math; we did it this morning,” she said. “But we use objects and activities that teach math that are built into the theme and what we are doing that day.”
STEM subjects — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — are taught alongside such concepts as resiliency, kindness, skills like reading and writing.
Merissa Koller Williams, the executive director of ONE, which offers all-outdoor education programs for children, said the COVID-19 pandemic made parents more open-minded to new approaches to learning while at the same time desiring programs that were flexible in terms of delivery and customized to their children’s needs and interests.
“Families are looking at even the public education system a little bit differently,” Koller Williams said. “People are realizing there are many opportunities and ways to learn.”
Lisa Cobb, a teacher at Seaview Learning Center who works with ORCA students, said those in the outdoor class seemed particularly engaged in learning and comfortable around each other.
“They’re excited to come to school; they’re excited to see each other,” Cobb said. “They’re making friendships and they’re not as apprehensive about being in a Google meet with people because they’re not strangers. They’re their friends that they’ve met face to face.”
The Reimagine Education Grant grant that funds the contract with ONE also pays for classroom materials and wet weather gear like rain jackets, waterproof pants, boots, hats and gloves for students who need them.
Providing resources for students who might otherwise not be able to attend the outdoor component is part of ORCA’s mission. It also signals that class will not be canceled in case of bad weather.
“Outside all the time,” Low said. “If it’s raining, we’ll go under the trees. We have tarps that we can sit on. It’s called being comfortable with being uncomfortable.”
Parents interested in learning about or enrolling their child in ORCA can call Seaview Academy at 360-452-9502 or go to its website at tinyurl.com/4a9k76mj.
________
Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached at paula.hunt@soundpublishing.com.
Seaview Academy instructor Eric Pickens and Olympic Nature Experience teacher Amanda Erickson, right, conduct an outdoor learning game with Outdoor, Real-world, Child-centered Academic Program students at Lincoln Park in Port Angeles. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
