PLP has something called field studies in its program where the whole class travels together and learns first hand through experience. Every year the grade 8 PLP class goes to Oregon and does lots of fun and exciting activities to enhance our learning. We had our itinerary set and we were set to start the long trip to Oregon. 

 

The outdoor activities in Oregon were some of my favourite things that we did. The speed of the zip lining was crazy fast giving me a rush of adrenaline. The second last line had a really cool aspect that you get soaked from dipping into a lake. However, I did not have an extra change of clothes so I didn’t do the full body soak and just did a hand drag instead. This was a way different experience than the time I went zip lining in the Cloud Forest in Ecuador and I would definitely come back to Oregon sometime to do the full soak if I had the chance to.

In Oregon, there was also amazing food on the trip and my favourite restaurant was the Golden Corral. This was an all-you-can-eat buffet with a giant chocolate fountain. You could dip everything in the chocolate from Rice Krispy Squares to pineapple. I loved the food there and I kept getting extra helpings to help fill me up as I have an endless appetite. The final part of the Golden Corral was its desserts and they were amazing with their pies being the best part of it.

We stayed in many unique places but the KOA was my favourite. The KOA had a pool that was slightly above freezing. Despite the temperature, I quickly got used to it and then started playing pool games with almost the whole class. We had a giant game of chicken fight during both of the 2 nights. We had a blast in our cabins with 2 Bluetooth speakers for music and we all got along well.

The final thing I really enjoyed on the trip was something called quests. Quests are like escape rooms and geocaches combined. You are first presented with clues leading to different places where you collect letters eventually compiling into a word. This word is a hint to where the final quest box is located which is like a geocache. Groups needed to have the stamp confirming the quest box was found. I liked the thrill of completing the challenges and working together to find the end goal.

The Oregon field study was an amazing experience and was really fun along side my class. I learnt a lot about the marine animals from the Hatfield Marine Centre and the land animals from the Northwest Trek. I learnt about the things we talked about in Scimatics like plate tectonics, earthquakes and tsunamis in person. Overall I loved all the activities, food and all the team bonding we were able to do with our classmates.