Another average post about my Oregon coast field study

Hey again, yes, this is another post about the oregon coast field study that I went on a few weeks ago with my class. This post, however will be more focused on the academic things that we did while in Oregon.

The first day we went to he Astoria column. We learned who made it, what its purpose was, and when it was made. The Astoria column was originally built as a mural of sorts, to show a timeline of when the First Nations were the only ones around to when the pioneers first arrived. Astoria Column

This is a picture of the Astoria column. You can throw wooden airplanes from the top!

 

On day 2, we went to Fort Stevens State Park. We learned of the forts origins, it’s developments, and how it operated through this years being in commission. Fort Stevens was originally built out of dirt in the civil war as ordered by their president at the time, Abraham Lincoln. There was a quest at Fort Stevens where you had to follow clues to find the quest box (like I said in my previous post, its like geocaching) and put your name in it. Nobody really understood what the quest was trying to say though. Here’s a link for Fort Stevens

This is a “disappearing” cannon. It was given that name because the cannon would only be above the wall for around 1 second because of the way it was built.

On day 3, we visited the Colombia River Maritime Museum. There, we learned of the expeditions sent by boat across the deadly mouth of the Colombia River, also known as the bar of the Colombia River. The bar is so deadly because of the jetties concentrating the waves, and there’s one more thing, imagine your finger pushed onto the tip of a hose, now imagine that the jetties are your finger and the ocean is the hose water, thats why the are is so dangerous. Maritime Museum

This is a fake ship that they have built in the museum that shows it “crossing the bar”.

On day 4, we visited the OSU (Oregon State University) Hatfield Marine Science Center. Here, we learned of whales, their habitat, their behaviour, and their skeleton’s structure. OSU’s website 🙂

This is the whale skeleton that we re-assembled.

On day 5, we re-visited the OSU HMSC and took a lesson on R.O.V.s (Remotely Operated Vehicle) and even built one!

This is a photo of me and my group building the R.O.V. Using the materials we were given.

On day 6, didn’t do anything inherently academic because of the long drive back home, but we had fun at John’s Incredible Pizza Company. Here’s a link to John’s Incredible Pizza Co.

This is a picture of one of the arcade machines in John’s Incredible Pizza Co.

On day 7, (the last day) we visited Northwest Trek. There, we learned of the wildlife, their habitat, and their food presences (and also maybe had a little fun along the way). Northwest Trek’s Website

This is a few beavers that live in Northwest Trek. They’re cute aren’t they?

This section is going to be about the competencies that had to be met in order to have a fun, successful field study.

Persisting: There were many places where I persisted, one being when we were doing questing at Fort Stevens when our group had completely lost where we were supposed to be and the clues weren’t helping. We didn’t give up and we kept going, and didn’t finish but, we didn’t feel defeated at all because we tried our best at the time.

Managing Impulsivity: This competency is all about NOT making impulse decisions. A good example of this for me, is again, the quests. I’m an athletic person, so running ahead of my quest group was something that was very easy to do. Of course, we were supposed to stick together so that we don’t get lost.

Metacognition: You can look up the definition for this one, anyway metacognition is the act of being aware of your own thoughts and actions and their effects on others. I think that I did this well most of the trip. The most prominent part of it were, again, the quests. This was because for your quest group to be successful then you had to be aware how everyone in your group was feeling and base you actions on that.

Questioning and posing problems: This competency is about questioning and being curious you also need to know what information you need and the process to getting that info. A good example for me doing this is when we visited OSU HMSC because I was very invested in learning about what we were learning there and I wanted to learn more about it.

Thinking interdependently: this competency is sowing the ability to work well with others and learn from them at the same time. The best example I have for this is at the OSU HMSC when we built the R.O.V. because this project relied almost all on teamwork. In order to build a well operating R.O.V. you had to share your idea with your group and everyone had to come to agreement to start building.

 

And finally here’s the link to the workbook that tells it all.

An above average post about an above average Oregon field study

Hi again! This post is very special. Why? you ask because it is a post that i chose to do myself. Also, well, its about my class’s field study in Oregon. So, basically, my wonderful teachers decided to bring our class on the annual Oregon field study. This particular field study has been done every year for the past 10 years (I think). This was the best field trip (by far) that i have ever been on, not just because it lasted a week but because of all of the fun stuff we got to experience with friends. The first step to going on this trip and getting to Oregon as scheduled was meeting up at the school with all of our luggage at 6:00am. However, it wasn’t the worst thing ever because it was on a Saturday so we didn’t have to panic. The drive to Oregon was about 8 hours long and most people fell asleep on the bus at some point in time. The first of the really exciting things happened on the second day. We went zip lining! The place we went zip lining was called “High Life Adventures” and it is located in Warrenton Oregon. Our class was split into 2 “tour” groups, meaning we were separated because we had too many people for one group.

This is me on the zip line at High Life

The second to last line was definitely the best because people got wet and once you finished the line there was a person dressed as Sasquatch waiting to make you jump. The best part about that was definitely seeing people’s reaction to being scared like that. To be honest, that was probably one of the best parts of the trip. on the third day we went to the Tillamook Creamery. The creamery was originally only named after its cheese but the factory is now known for ice cream, yogurt, and other assorted dairy products along with its famous cheese. The special thing about the creamery is that you get to eat as much cheese as you want. I didn’t eat much but some people in the class had a little too much cheese. On day 4 we did an Oregon coast quest. They are a sort of scavenger hunt very similar to geocaching but instead of a map you get hints and clues to find the box. When every quest group had finished the quest (or tried to) we went to the Oregon State University Hatfield Marine Science Center. Yea, it’s a mouthful. At the OSU HMSC we learned about whales and intertidal species in general. We even got to re-assemble a whale skeleton!

This is the whale skeleton that we re-assembled.

Oh yeah, whenever I mention a new day you can assume we spent the night in a state park camping in yurts. On day 5 we returned to the OSU HMSC to learn about R.O.V.s (that means remotely operated vehicle by the way) how they work, what they do, and again, we got to assemble one. My group’s R.O.V. was the best, naturally. Or it might’ve been the pilot (also me). Once we had finished and cleaned up our R.O.V.s our class went to visit Yaquina Head’s outstanding tide pools. Yaquina Head’s beach is special though, its special because it’s a beach made of almost entirely perfectly round magmatic rocks. you weren’t allowed to take even one rock home with you because they cannot be re-made or bought to replace the ones people take.

This is a picture that I took at Yaquina Head.

There was a quest there, too. We packed up, ate dinner and camped yet another night in yurts at a state park. Finally, day 6 had arrived. The last full day of this wonder-filled trip. However, that doesn’t mean that it got dull from then on, day 6 was one of the best there was. Why? You ask. Well its because we went to an arcade/all you can eat buffet called “John’s Incredible Pizza Company” the name doesn’t lie by the way, it really is incredible. They even had rides insides the building! We dove right Into the buffet and soon ate all we could. We were given our play cards and we set off for the arcade. Everyone got 20 credits and each game cost 2-4 credits. I used all of my credits and got 200 tickets, which got me a giant kazoo! The teachers wouldn’t let me use the kazoo on the bus though 🙁. That night, being the last night, we slept in cabins (they were A LOT more deluxe than the yurts) I played around on my iPad a little before I went to sleep though. On the fateful day 7, we went to northwest trek. It’s a wildlife reserve in Washington that has a bus that drives though the “free-range“ area. There were goats, moose, deer, bison, and lots of other animals as well.

This is a goat from Northwest trek.

Overall the bus part was great. But, it got better. After the bus tour was over, we went to the enclosed animals area. In that section they had: wolverine, wolves, bobcats, lynx, bears, and even bald eagles. There was one more part to see though. The animals that needed to be put in small, confined areas, for example, the skunk or the beavers, or the otters. They had more animals there than I can even remember! The sad part, that was the last place we would sightsee/learn/have buckets of fun at. The last place. The Golden Corral, an all-you-can-eat buffet of anywhere from cotton candy to steak. They Even had a chocolate fountain! My favourite part about the GC was definitely the chocolate fountain with strawberries. I mean, who doesn’t like chocolate strawberries? Anyway, this was the final destination of the PLP 8 Oregon Field study. The rest of those 6 hours was spent driving back to our school. When we got there we were exhausted  but our parents were there to drive us home and throw us in the shower then into bed.

 

I hope you enjoyed this post about my Oregon Coast Field Study!

Bye for now!