S. John Collins / Baker City Herald Second-grader Silas Talbott leaps with enthusiasm at the start of the obstacle course. He said he "super, super, super liked" traveling the course designed to demonstrate the many obstacles animals face while moving through the forest. Students packed a pine cone to simulate the additional difficulties of carrying food without losing it. Kindergartners Kate Hill, back left, and Paityn Barr, waited their turn while volunteer Dana Hill, Kate's mom, kept a watchful eye on Silas.

Haines students spend a day at Anthony Lake to get a new perspective on science

Anthony Lake provided a mirror-like reflection for Gunsight Peak Wednesday morning, the stillness interrupted only by an occasional fish leaping for a meal and the twinkling of sunshine across the lake’s glassy surface.

While the scenery was placid, the atmosphere was electric as 50 Haines students in kindergarten, first and second grades visited the mountain area about 25 miles northwest of their classrooms.

The boys and girls traveled along the lake’s perimeter to five stations aimed at helping them gain a better appreciation for the study of insects and habitats from their science lessons, said second-grade teacher Katy Collier.

“Guys, there’s like a million pine cones over here,” came a cry from along the lake trail alerting classmates of a vital item needed in an outdoor scavenger hunt that was combined with a nature walk at one station.

Volunteers Autumn Swiger-Harrell, Logan Kerns and Casey Martin were the volunteers for that activity.

“Do we really need to put an ant in our bag?” a student could be heard questioning her adult leaders.

“Ants are to be seen and not touched,” came the answer.

Two volunteers staffed each of the stations and one volunteer led each group from station to station during the half-day excursion.

Collier said she and her colleagues started brainstorming last spring about ways to take their students to nearby outdoor sites to enhance their educational experience. Andrea Belding teaches first grade and Leah Pepera is the Haines kindergarten teacher.

“This is similar to outdoor school only it’s geared to younger kids,” Collier said.

The Baker School District completed its annual four-day outdoor school for sixth-graders last month at Phillips Park, about 10 miles west of Baker City.

Just like the program for older students, Collier said the Haines trip to Anthony Lake could not have succeeded without the volunteers who agreed to join the staff and students on the mountain Wednesday.

“We have a ton of help,” Collier said. “That’s the only way we’re making this happen.”

Oregon State Police Lt. Sean Belding (husband of teacher Andrea Belding) and Sgt. Isaac Cyr explained different animal traits and behaviors while the students got a close-up look at the skulls of animals – including a bear – at their station.

“Where’s the bear’s costume?” one of the students asked.

The “costumes” included pelts of a fox, a weasel, a beaver and even a mountain lion, but no bear.

A tiny pelt caught the attention of first-grader Theodore Pepera, the son of teacher Leah Pepera.

“This is the softest thing I’ve ever touched,” he said, before finding out which animal it belonged to.

The students were surprised to learn that the soft gray pelt with the long black whiskers had once been a pack rat.

And they discovered that one pelt they guessed might have belonged to a baby fox or a platypus actually was that of a pine marten, a type of weasel.

“I don’t have any platypus pelts here today,” Sgt. Cyr informed the class.

Parent volunteers Hollie Densley and Darci Terteling staffed the owl pellet station. Students donned blue gloves and sorted through the tightly packed regurgitated remains of indigestible material from an owl’s gizzard with toothpicks and tweezers.

“It was a little gross,” said first-grader Sawyer Blatchford.

Korra Randall, another first-grader, was more enthusiastic in her review.

“It was awesome,” she said. “We found feathers, bones and a skeleton.”

See more in Friday’s issue of the Baker City Herald.