The Griffon News

There is an alternative to the usual general studies program with less sitting in classrooms, less listening to lectures and writ­ing isolated papers. 

It’s called the outdoor semester and while it includes classes, you also get to travel to outdoor settings while you are learning.

According to the brochure, students “learn how the land shaped people’s lives. Read their stories. Listen to drums, fiddles and flutes.  Hike, camp, canoe, horseback ride, rock climb and white water raft your way to a new relationship with the natural world.”

Nine students actually participated in the North Trek on Sept. 15-27 and eight faculty and support personnel went along.

There will be a south trek on Oct. 27 to Nov. 7.

Dr. Elizabeth Latosi-Sawin, co-director of the outdoor semester, has been organizing the outdoor semester for about nine years and every year has been a challenge.

This year six more students wanted to go on the trek but could not, three found they could not afford the $950 additional activity fee and three because of academic problems.

When asked if the additional cost of the semester was worth it, students Bonnie Seaboldt and Jamie Bolton both enthusiastically said that it was, and they agreed it would cost much more to do on their own.

“We read a book in my English class and one of the places it talked about was Hole in the Wall and we actually visited there,” Seaboldt said.

Hole in the Wall is a natural geological structure among the upper Missouri River Breaks and was formed in sandstone by wind and erosion.

It is a large square hole in the top of a cliff where there was a star show.

“I’ve never seen a sky like that,” Seaboldt said.
 
Sawin thinks that traveling in the off-season makes the trip a good value.

The fact that there aren’t many universities doing what this MWSU is does lets the group go places other people don’t get to go.

Over the years the outdoor semester has developed relationships with many sites that want to help the university supply a quality experience to our students.

The students read Fools Crow by James Welch, a story about the Blackfeet Indians, the impact of the settlers and the ultimate change in the customs, ceremonies and traditions of the tribe.

Then the students go out into the environment that the story took place in. Welch used many sources to accurately reconstruct the lives of  the Blackfeet during a transi­tional time in their culture when they would no longer be allowed to roam. 

The students kept journals of their trip and were graded on them.

At campfires they can choose to share their entries.

Russ Phillips, psychology professor, and two community members read poetry and narratives at the campfires.

Amy Saxton, outdoor education administrative assis­tant, and a student both played the cedar flute.

A retired faculty member, Jerry Wilkerson, is the camp cook, supply truck driver and resident astronomer.

He did the star show at Hole in the Wall and will do one at Chaco Canyon on the south trek. 

Sawin said “This kind of learning is interdisciplinary learning with interconnections and field experience, being in the landscape of the novels, you’re on the river Lewis and Clark would recognize as their own and it gives them multiple points of view.

They get a taste of what the pioneer experience was like.”

Student Jamie Bolton said, “I learn better hands-on, it was way better than just being in a classroom.”

Students get credit with outdoor semester for being in the field as well as being in the classroom.

Students see the geography, actively participate in outdoor physical education and write about their experi­ences.

Students realize that settlers had 2000 mile to travel and they walked from sundown to sun-up accomplishing about 15 miles each day. 

Even in a van with air-conditioning and padded seats, a day’s travel lets them learn as Sawin said,”from the seat of their pants,” just how broad the plains the settlers trav­eled are.

James Grechus, co-director of outdoor semester as well as professor emeritus of health, physical education and recreation, said that part of what he teaches is how to live in a natural environment.
 
He schedules the itinerary for the trips. 

Most years the students have to choose between the north and south trek but this year they can go on both trips.
 
He said, “We talk a lot about how the land is being uti­lized and how it is being protected.”

They also get to see the real results of a conservation act signed by President Clinton that saved the upper Missouri Breaks. 

This is the scenery that Meriwether Clark called “a scene of visionary enchantment.”

Grechus said, “They learn about themselves through the physical experience.

They become immersed in nature.
It prepares them to move through the natural environ­ment and have fun doing it.
 
We live in such an artificial environment, that often­times we exclude ourselves from nature. 

We try to develop an appreciation for it, so we can learn to protect it.”

The psychology of group dynamics and dealing with a group is also part of the trip.  Grechus said, learning about “an individual’s responsibility to the group and the group to the individual is a very intense thing when you are around someone twenty four- seven.”

It teaches the students about themselves in an applied application of psychology.

The professors also learn from the outdoor semester and each other.
 
Ken Dagel, associate professor in Geology, and Sawin co-wrote a paper last year on how physical geography impacts the novel Fools Crow. 
He presented it at a conference in Denver this year.

The students will be developing a interpretive program for the community that they will present on Nov. 28 at 6:30 p.m. in the Spratt Recital Hall.
It will have exhibits on their travels and experiences.