Lucy, we gotta lotta catching up to do!

WHEW! When I first started this, it was intended to be a weekly blog. Since a month has gone by, it is apparent that I am not meeting that goal. We have been busy, busy, busy here at the FLC. In fact, I only have 15 minutes to get this post going so let's get started.

Wilderness First Responder Training

The highlight of last month was the Wilderness First Responder Class I took from The Wilderness Medicine Training Center through Boise State University. The class had an on-line pre-lesson and a 50 hour practical session. We simulated disasters, learned CPR, and addressed diagnosing and treating major illness and injury in a back-country setting. It was intense work, but very gratifying. I already got to use my training when one of my students fell on a trail and hurt her knee. It was surprising to me how readily the skills snapped into place. Repetition works!

Stabilizing the neck after a simulated mountain bike crash. This patient had broken ribs and a sprained wrist.

Sometimes patients were in awkward positions. I was the patient in this scenario and I was pinned under a tree in my tent. My responders had to get me clear of the hazard, assess my condition, and keep me warm.

This was a large simulation with a group of people that "fell" when a rope bridge collapsed. Injuries ranged from broken legs to concussions. This mass casualty scenario was also more complicated because some patients had previous medical issues like asthma, angina, and diabetes.

Hold Your Ground

The first big lesson that I got to contribute to and lead was our "Hold Your Ground" lesson plan. This was my first geology lesson, so I was dying to jump in since I am a Geoscience major. Hold your ground deals with weather and erosion and always includes a cool hike. One of these sessions was held at Quarry View Park near Table Rock so we got to take a way cool hike. Half the group would hike and half the group would cycle through stations staffed by FLC staff and volunteers, then they would switch.

The Castle Rock loop. 1.4 miles with 500 feet of elevation gain.

I wanted to be sure I had my facts down since I haven't hiked this trail in at least a year, so I went out a 6:30 am and hiked the trail in the dark. I then hiked it two more times with the kids, so I had a heckuva day on the trail. This was a great experience for me to learn and to see the excitement that kids exhibit when they are outdoors. I see this over and over again in this position and I am starting to develop a very strong belief that we need to have more outdoor education. It was also a good opportunity to learn about classroom management outside of the classroom and setting a walking pace that all of the kids can follow. The biggest challenge is trying to teach in an environment that is so distracting. If a group of kids spots a rabbit or a toad, they aren't going to pay attention to the lesson at all.

Geology in the Foothills.

Now we're talking my language! The learning center has a 4-hour geology lesson that we teach at the facility. Carolyn (my supervisor) and I spent many hours reviewing the current lesson and making changes to streamline it and give the lesson more impact. This is a great plan for 5th/6th grade students. We get to introduce them to new concepts like the rock cycle, erosion, stream transport, weathering, and geomorphology (we call it land forms). As an instructor, this combines classroom learning, the scientific method, class management, multi-media information sharing, physical activity, civic responsibility, and teaching kids to visualize prehistoric Earth. This is exceptionally rewarding and very tiring. We are "on" from before the kids get here and until they leave. It usually ends with the staff collapsed around a table eating lunch and swapping stories. As exhausting as it is, it is quickly becoming my favorite activity. Not only because the subject is in my wheelhouse, but the extended session allows me an opportunity to form relationships with the students.

Students make observations of a cliff from a distance and make hypothesis about the processes that may have formed it.

This hillside is always popular and never fails to produce a pile of rowdy 5th graders.

We were fortunate enough to borrow a stream table from the US Forest Service. With this table we could demonstrate the formation and draining of Ancient Lake Idaho and the land forms that were created afterward. This is followed by a hike that shows the real-life version of the same events.

The kid who doesn't mind lying in the dirt and getting his face up against a sandstone cliff is a future geologist for sure!

The Swarming of the Bees.

This was wicked cool, and apparently something that few people get to see, I was sitting in my office and I looked out the window to see THOUSANDS of bees outside. It was a cloud of bees about the size of a single car garage. We went out to see what was happening and discovered that our demonstration hive was swarming. Swarming is how bees divide a colony and move to a new location to reproduce. The queen bee will birth some new queens and then leave to find a new home. They do this when food is plentiful and the colony is strong so it is a good sign. About half of the colony goes with the queen and half stays behind. Our bee wrangler estimated up to 10,000 bees in this swarm! A volunteer from the Treasure Valley Beekeepers Club came and collected the swarm before they made a new home. This way we have a "spare" colony in case our demonstration hive doesn't prosper.

All of the specks in this picture are bees.

The swarm eventually condenses around the queen. This wad of bees has up to 10,000 bees in it. The queen is somewhere in the middle. You could actually feel the heat radiating from the swarm when you got within a few feet of it. They were surprisingly docile.

Dick from TVBC came out to collect our swarm. They will stay on a branch while scouts look for a new home. This could take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Dick set up a "perfect" hive and set it inches from the swarm. This way, the bees find it and move right it. It only takes a few minutes and they start pouring in like water.

There were some kids visiting the area from Portland, OR. We let them put on the jacket and get up close. Boy do they have a spring break story to tell when they get home!