By Alex Day, Director of Marketing/Communications
Imagine this: a bunch of middle schoolers armed with snowshoes and hiking boots, braving the elements in the name of science.
That’s exactly what goes down for the seventh and eighth grade students at Stevens Middle School in Port Angeles thanks to Olympic National Park’s middle school science program, supported in part by donors to Washington’s National Park Fund.
The park’s Elwha Science and Snow Science programs aim to immerse students in hands-on experiences that cultivate a deep appreciation for our natural world while fostering essential scientific inquiry skills.
Interns and rangers first visit classrooms, igniting curiosity and excitement among 210 eighth graders. Then, through a 6-hour field trip to the Elwha River, many of these budding scientists get to collect data and conduct their own investigations, all while getting knee-deep in the action of Elwha River restoration.
And the seventh graders aren’t left “out in the cold.”
Despite the historic Hurricane Ridge Day Lodge burning down, the park quickly pivoted, working with teachers to offer more programming in classrooms (instead of in the Day Lodge, as in years past).
Though the park had to downsize the student groups in 2023 to accommodate the new schedule sans Lodge, more than 80 seventh graders were schooled in the art of snowshoeing and winter weather survival before donning their snowshoes and embarking on field trips to Hurricane Ridge to collect snowpack data.
Thanks to partnerships with the Port Angeles School District and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, this program offers more than just a day in the park for local middle schoolers – it’s a bridge to traditional ecological knowledge and a pathway to lifelong learning.
“This project allows us to serve all the middle school students in the Port Angeles School District and builds on a series of experiences that students have throughout their elementary school years,” shares Dean Butterworth, Outreach and Education Specialist at Olympic National Park.
“The hope is that these repeated positive experiences in the park will create lifelong learners and park supporters.”
By nurturing curiosity and instilling a sense of responsibility towards public lands, we empower students to become passionate advocates for the preservation of national parks.
Donors help make this possible through contributions to Washington’s National Park Fund. These funds provide for seasonal staff to lead field trips to the Elwha River for the 8th grade students as well as the bus transportation needed to host the field trips.
Together, we can invest in inspiring the next generation of land stewards and make a difference that resonates far beyond the boundaries of Olympic National Park.
Washington’s National Park Fund is the official philanthropic partner to Mount Rainier, North Cascades, and Olympic National Parks. Donations fund scientific research, youth and family experiences, and projects that will keep these parks strong and vital now and forever, for everyone. We are grateful to our friends Kim and Scott Fancher and Sue and Gary Villella, as well as the Thomas O. Brown Foundation, Albert Haller Foundation, James M. Lea Foundation, Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation, and Wild Tribute for their generous support of the middle school science program.