Field School Projects
This page contains a sampling of the projects we have explored and how they fit in with core academic subjects.
Science
Life cycle of local kokanee salmon and salmon dissection; understanding of weather and climate through identification of clouds and seasons; creating ecosystem food webs to gain understanding of how plants and animals are connected; learning about chemicals that change leaf colors; identifying animals and animal tracks; identifying deciduous and coniferous trees; dissecting pine cones and identifying different varieties of pine and spruce trees; identifying macroinvertebrates in local ponds and streams; comparing rocks and minerals found in our area; mining for sapphires; testing soils; dissecting flowers to learn flower anatomy; learning about the importance of pollinators to our local environment; taking daily weather measurements and finding patterns as seasons change; learning the ways animals in our place adapt to winter through migration, hibernation, and resisting; exploring the water cycle and how it affects our water supply.
Mathematics
Creating patterns with items found in nature; engineering/building forts; measuring ingredients for making freshly pressed chokecherry juice; identifying geometric shapes in nature; counting objects in nature; measuring and comparing size of leaves, trees, sticks, fish parts; measuring and determining distance and direction on maps; measuring snowpack and calculating the snow water equivalent; measuring boards to construct bird feeders; taking daily weather measurements and creating graphs from the data; learning how to navigate using handmade compasses, bow and arrows, and blazing trails.
English Language Arts
Reading and listening to books relevant to the week's topic; reflecting on the day and writing about it in nature journals; reading and creating maps; using books and guides to identify local flora and fauna; writing in the dirt and labeling leaf parts; making music; creating a wildlife tracks booklet; filling in charts concerning the day's topic (flowers and pollinators present, descriptions of soils).
Social Studies
Foraging and learning how people in the past used local plants to eat and make art; creating local guide books based on history and culture; storytelling about the cultural history of our places and exploring them; learning about the Corp of Discovery and its impact on our local place and surrounding region; making maps of local places; learning how miners found gold and other minerals in our surrounding regions and how that shaped the culture of Helena; using tools like Native Americans did to forage local foods; respectfully visiting a local cemetery on the National Historic Register to learn about life in the past; playing games to understand the hardships settlers faced when moving out here.
Art
Creating story bandanas with color extracted from local plants; making musical instruments; singing; rhythm making; free painting and painting our surroundings; drawing; yarn snowflakes and winter stars; salt paintings; creating picture frames with natural materials; making flower crowns, creating golden glitter globes; making fish prints based on the Japanese art technique called Gyotaku.