Oregon Coast Field School: PLP 2017

Once a year, each grade in PLP gets the chance to go on an amazing field school (essentially a trip that lasts over a few days where the class visits loads of places and is incredibly busy learning and having fun). This year, the Oregon Coast was the destination for the Grade 8 field school. I learned so much on this trip, I definitely couldn’t share it all on one post, so I decided to write about something I found especially interesting about the places visited  and add some photos. A big part of the trip focused on ocean life because for a novel study, we all read the book The Highest Tide, which is very informative.

The full itinerary is here, and it has everywhere we went on it.

It wasn’t just for fun though, throughout the whole trip we were all working on a book of our own in the Book Creator app that showed the main points in our adventure, and I’m happy that I have mine to show everything I did.  My book shows some reflections on the things we did.

Because advertising is our unit right now, everyone was to make an ad for a business visited in Oregon (blog post about this unit here). My group received Nisa’s Thai Kitchen.

Day 1: After a long drive and lunch in Cabela’s , our class arrived at the Astoria Column, and what I found most interesting there was how it was 125 feet tall, and showed so much about the history of the area on the frieze wrapping around. The frieze was a series of pictures about significant moments in northwestern history.

Day 2: On day two, Fort Stevens State Park was the first stop, and in the historic area of the old army base, our class received a really in depth tour. We even went into the Battery Mishler underground, where it was so fascinating for me to image real people that would have spent many hours inside that same base. There were also some old earthworks, buildings made out of the ground because the people thought it would be better for protection in the case of an invasion.

 

Day 3: The third day was very busy and fun, starting off in the Columbia River Maritime Museum, where I learned through an eye-opening talk that the coast guards in the area are among some of the bravest out there, risking their lives to cross the dangerous waves of the Columbia River bar. The bar is essentially the spot where ocean meets river, and the water crashes against each other forming giant waves, while moving around sand at the bottom.

Day 4: The first place visited on this day was the Oregon Coast Aquarium, where we learned more about some intertidal life. I also learned some interesting things at the Hatfield Marine Science Center, like how a male ghost shrimp in the nearby estuary has one larger claw to attract females, and all ghost shrimp bury in the sand in connected burrows.

Day 5: Going back to the Science Center first, I found the simulators engaging, like the tsunami machine showing the affects of a natural disaster. Later on, it was time for a Marine Discovery Cruise, and what I find most interesting was how plankton, a tiny little thing is so important to the food chain, and to many other products people use everyday, like toothpaste.

Day 6: Starting off in the Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area, everyone got some great photos of the rare rocks and water. Yaquina Head is a government protected because of the rare rocks that are found in a few places worldwide. We then went to the whale watching center in Depoe Bay, the world’s smallest navigational harbour. I now know that inside a whale’s mouth, there is hair like fibres that filter plankton and krill from what they don’t want to eat.

Day 7: The last day of this great trip began with some activities at the Audubon Society of Portland and learning about bats (did you know that not all bats are blind, but everyone of them have an amazing sense of smell?). Then came a long drive to lunch, and hours of driving all the way to Vancouver.

 

This trip was amazing in so many ways, packed with immersive stops and activities mixed with fun. I’m very happy I was able to go, and can’t wait for some thing like it to happen again.