School Name: Pleasant Valley Elementary School - 5th Grade

Project Overview: Fifth grade students will spend two nights in June 2104 at the Sierra Nevada Journeys' Grizzly Creek Ranch where credentialed teachers use outdoor science education to build critical thinking and collaboration skills in the classroom. Students will learn about Forest Ecology, Pond Ecology, Astronomy, Geology and experience outdoor adventures like night hiking and challenge courses. This trip involves extensive experiential learning, appealing to multiple intelligences, including daylong hikes, wildlife counts, and astronomy sessions. Lessons in natural resource conservation include water use and its impacts. Service projects teach forest management techniques—key to stewardship of the drought-prone slopes of the eastern Sierra Nevada—with the ranch’s herd of goats as ambassadors of fuel suppression. The objective for this trip will be the use of outdoor science education supported by in school lessons and teacher professional development to maximize student knowledge and achievement across science, math, reading, and collaborative problem solving. Many of these students have never had an opportunity to spend an evening out in nature. By taking the students out of the 'normal' classroom and immersing them in a completely alternate learning experience, we will be opening their minds to a new way of thinking.

Detailed Budget:
Transportation $500
Activity Fees $8800
Total Cost $9300
The goal of $5000 will be used to off set the cost for each student and to pay for students who could not otherwise afford to attend. If our goal of $5000 is not met then the funds will still be used to offset the cost just at a lesser amount.