By Joanna Miller, Staff Writer

“Hands on.”

These two words describe the inaugural year for an environmental summer camp at Jeffers Pond Elementary and Hidden Oaks Middle School, organizers said.

The Environmental Education Immersion Camp, offered three sessions from mid-June through early July, set children in grades one through six out on the trails and into the classroom to study nature.

Multiple organizations pitched in grant funding to make the program possible, including Prior Lake-Savage Area Community Education, the Prior Lake-Savage Area Educational Foundation, The Jeffers Foundation and Youth Development/Youth Services.

“We’re using a lot of the DNR curriculum. They’ve invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in creating an environmental curriculum,” Coordinator LeAnn Weikle said.

DNR staff even provided fishing rods and reels as part of the MinnAqua curriculum. Students studied everything from bait and casting to life cycles and aquatic invertebrates before having a day of fishing.

“What’s cool is all of the DNR curriculum has the state standards built into them,” Weikle said.

The other cool thing for Weikle was working in a smaller class environment, she explained.

“This is how we wish we could teach every lesson every day,” Weikle said. “Small class sizes, and hands-on learning.”

The program teamed with the DNR, which provided curriculum for programs linked to state guidelines for science, math and reading, Weikle said.

Weikle attended a similar camp in the Minnetonka-Wayzata area previously in preparation for launching a Prior Lake-Savage area program.

“I just went out and observed,” Weikle said. “I thought, ‘We can do that in Prior Lake, and maybe do it even better.’”

Weikle said the biggest compliment on the camp was when one mom said her student woke up each morning ready to go.

Previously, the mom had recorded her son stating that he would attend the camp every day if he enrolled, because he’d had trouble following through on summer commitments in the past.

“She said she didn’t even have to get the video out. He loves it,” Weikle said.

Something’s fishy

Students were hands on, even when it came to learning how to handle dead fish for an art project that included painting them and making stamps with the scales.

One camper whispered it was “smelly” as teacher Kay Dicke explained “gyotaku,” a traditional form of Japanese fish printing.

From handling dead fish to gathering leaf samples in the field, students said they’d been muddy, smelly and sweaty, and they loved it.

Former Superintendent Tom Westerhaus has said the environmental projects have put the district on the map locally and nationally, and Weikle said if that’s the case, she’s pleased.

“I’m really proud of that. As a nation, we lack in science and math. I think it provides proof of what a quality education students get in Prior Lake-Savage…Our kids will do well in the science MCA-II [tests] because of what education they’re getting at the elementary level,” she said.

Prior Lake High School teacher Andy Franklin said it has been different teaching grade-schoolers.

“There’s a lot more playing with the water,” Franklin said as he worked on a watershed simulation project with students Tuesday. “They’re quick studies.”

Franklin said the camp wasn’t as much about retention of information as it was about teaching concepts.

“The kids are going to be sensitized to environmental issues,” Franklin said.

Weikle said the challenge of the camp was taking time to prepare all of the experiential learning options.

“The challenge is the time it takes to prepare hands-on lessons,” Weikle said. “Everything here is an active learning game.”

Teachers learned from the program, too, added kindergarten teacher Amy Alpaugh, who served as a “pack leader” in the program. The Jeffers Pond teacher said the camp mixed students and teachers from multiple grade levels, providing learning situations beyond those expected.

The camp, which began its first week with about 40 students, grew to more than 70 enrolled campers as word spread.

“It’s a good problem to have,” Alpaugh said of the increasing number of campers.

The program began with five licensed teachers on staff and was managed by seven licensed teachers by the end, keeping the top class size at 13 students.

The breadth in ages and abilities gave the teachers a chance to learn from each other, she said.

“We learned about adjusting lessons for the age group,” she said.

Alpaugh said even the littlest camper kept the pace.

“They really can do more than we thought they could,” she said. “The older kids were actually helping.”

The camp’s oldest camper, Anna Lise Gulstad, a seventh-grader from Prior Lake, made sure that the younger campers kept up and offered them a helping hand if needed.

“I basically help them out and help carry supplies,” she said of things she did to pitch in. “I work with the kids who need a little more assistance.”

Gulstad and Alpaugh said some of the best parts of camp were seeing how the younger children reacted to new environments.

“Some of these kids have never been off the path in the woods before,” Alpaugh said.

  Joanna Miller can be reached at (952) 345-6375 or jmiller@swpub.com.