Big Trips: The Great Outdoors as a Classroom
Research shows that young people who spend time outdoors exhibit improved attentiveness, reduced school absenteeism, and better academic performance. In alignment with this research, Life Academy believes that all students should have the opportunity to find joy outdoors. Being outside–camping, hiking, rock climbing, surfing, boating, biking– is a fundamental component of every student’s education at Life. Each school year is punctuated with an important “big trip”, a rite of passage for our students.
6th graders spend the night camping in Tilden Regional Park early in the year, where they engage in team building, hiking, and building the community they will be with for the next 7 years.
7th graders engage in a two night exploration of Pinnacles National Park, where students journey through chaparral, oak woodlands, canyon bottoms, talus caves and towering rock spires teeming with life: prairie and peregrine falcons, golden eagles, and the inspiring California condor.
8th graders head to Salt Point and Fort Ross, where they engage in marine exploration, tide pooling and sea otter observation.
9th graders spend the week at the Clem Miller Center for Environmental Education in Point Reyes National Seashore where students build their resiliency for the high school journey and examine the ecosystems, habitats and marine species around them.
10th graders head to Yosemite for a four day trip through which they not only reflect on the past two years of high school, but also the road ahead, with the final push to graduation ahead of them. They engage in intense “grade level challenges” where they must collaborate with one another to achieve a goal requiring physical and emotional acuity. 10th graders end their stay with a hike up to Vernal and Nevada Falls, the crown jewels of Yosemite National Park.
11th graders divide up into smaller groups, with each group going on a different California adventure through which they mix camping and enjoying the great outdoors with college visits, each group seeing a UC, UCS and private university.
12th graders return to Clem Miller Center for Environmental Education in Point Reyes National Seashore to reflect on their 4 years as students, and close out their experience in community with one another.