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.