Liedall Outdoor Learning Lab
Located at Ferndale Elementary School
53445 W Ferndale Road

Progress Report January 5, 2004, By Bob Chicken, STELLAR Coordinator

After nearly two years of talking and planning, the outdoor learning lab is becoming a reality. It is fun and very rewarding for me to see the kids engaged in working and learning. I have devoted much of my OWEB funds to this project this fall, approximately 12 hours / week of direct student contact and additional hours for planning and preparation. The planting stock used this fall was purchased through WWBWC using Trout Unlimited funds received last spring.

Most all of the Fall 04 site prep, ground cloth placement and planting were accomplished by Ferndale’s fifth and sixth graders in crews of 4-6 in 45 minute periods on Tuesdays and Wednesday afternoons during school. Thank you to the teachers for their cooperation and support.

The outdoor lab is also used for 4th grade math enrichment with small groups of 4 students twice a week. The 45-minute classes used cloth tapes and staff compasses to “survey” the fence. They also learned about laying out right angles using the proportional sides’ method. In the process they used calculators to find the square root of numbers. Currently, they are learning about using a ruler, “scale” and drawing maps of desks. Later, they will draw a map of the outdoor lab from survey notes.

The Ferndale Science Club is up and running with 14 bright, enthusiastic students, grade 4-6 with one 3rd grader, that meet Tuesdays after school for 90 minutes. Teacher Karen Hendricks is co-leader. The club began November 16. We have discussed stream monitoring, temperature and pH, surfed our watershed (an EPA web site), and was visited by Corps of Engineer’s habitat biologist Al Sutlick.

I also want to acknowledge teacher Karen Hendricks for her support and enthusiasm and Principal Jim Reger. Mr. Reger found funds for the water system, fence, ground cloth and tools. He also devoted custodial time for site clean up last spring, arranged for the initial blackberry removal, and follow-up herbicide application. This project is a model of how community and school collaboration can enrich both.

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