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EDUCATION SOU's Fall in the Field turns outdoors into a classroom Led by master's students, program provides hands-on lessons at Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument Comment By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@Joe_Zavala99 DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@Joe_Zavala99 Posted Aug. 11, 2016 at 12:01 AM By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@Joe_Zavala99 Posted Aug. 11, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Social News Not long ago, Shannon Browne was sitting at a desk in San Francisco, etching out a promising career in marketing and advertising. From the outside looking in, Browne was ahead of the curve — the paychecks were rolling in, even better opportunities were almost certainly right around the corner and there’s no shortage of things to do for a 20-something in the Bay Area. But inside, something wasn’t quite right. It was a good job, no doubt. But was it her passion, her calling? “No, definitely not,” she says now. “Things were good. But ultimately, I just felt like I wanted to contribute something else.” That something else turned out to be Southern Oregon University’s Environmental Education master’s program, for which Browne and 10 of her fellow students have spent the past year planning this year’s Fall in the Field program, a collaborative capstone project that exposes children in grades 2 through 8 throughout the Rogue Valley to the biologically diverse Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. The classes that participate are from all over, from Ashland’s Helman Elementary and Walker Elementary to Medford’s Griffin Creek Elementary and even a fourth-grade class from Rogue River. Beginning on Sept. 13, Fall in the Field instructors will guide students through a series of hands-on lessons four days a week over the course of seven weeks for a total of 28 days of instruction. Fall in the Field also includes an overnight program at the Deer Creek Center in Selma. “We have been writing, marketing, sort of doing outreach,” said Browne, 28. “We’ve written all the lessons, we’ve targeted all the standards, we’ve reached out to all the schools and now it’s manifesting. So, now we’re coming down to the wire, crossing all of our T's and just getting ready to go.” For the graduate students, crossing their T's means heading up to the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument today — it’s a 30-minute drive from Ashland — to go over lesson plans, hikes and logistics. The Fall in the Field site was chosen specifically for its biodiversity, according to Jeanine Moy, SOU environmental education alum and outreach director for KS Wild, an environmental advocacy group in Ashland. Situated at the junction of the Cascade and Siskiyou mountain ranges, the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument is home to a wide variety of plant species, including evergreen forests of the Cascades, desert plants of the Great Basin and oak savannah and countless shrubs. In other words, it’s an ideal place for boys and girls to learn about community ecosystems, food webs, insects, watersheds, plant communities and geology, all of which will be covered by the Fall in the Field instructors. Katie Boehnlein, 28, who earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental education and English from Seattle University before enrolling at SOU last summer, said part of what makes Fall in the Field special is how dedicated the graduate students are to the project and its objective. For them, she said, it’s more than a box to be checked off on their way to a degree. “Everybody in our cohort who goes through this program is just really passionate about it, and really passionate about teaching kids and teachers and parent chaperones about why they should care, about why it’s important to care about what’s in our backyard,” Boehnlein said. “So I think that that passion really comes through. And, we’re really excited to get some hands-on (teaching) experience.” The program has been around since 2010, she added, but since it’s handed off to another group of SOU grad students every year it’s never a rehash. “It’s very unique, so every single year each of the graduate cohorts bring a different flavor to the sites,” Boehnlein said. “So each of those sites stays the same every year, but every cohort develops something new, a different program, a different theme, different lessons that are written specifically for that site. So I think the uniqueness of it is really exciting. Kids won’t be getting the same program year after year. Even if they come back, it’ll be something different.” Last year, the Fall in the Field program served 750 students from 15 different schools throughout the Rogue Valley. This year, the program filled up faster than ever, according to Browne, and even required a waiting list. The preparation for this year’s Fall in the Field began last summer, when the 11 master’s students first were introduced to each other. Browne said she’s one of two native Oregonians in the program. Others, she said, hail from North Carolina, Maine, Colorado and Michigan. “So a lot of the summer,” she said, “is just getting to know the area and getting to know each other, and sort of starting to think about what we’re going to do, how we’re going to reach the community, what lesson topics we’re going to think about. And we really start planning Fall in the Field in the fall, so it really is a whole year of planning.” The 11 students were divided into groups last fall and quickly jumped into the planning process. There was a budget committee, an education outreach committee, an enrichment committee, a safety committee and an assessment committee. Browne said she had several responsibilities, including reaching out to the schools and serving as a liaison between Fall in the Field and the Friends of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument and the Bureau of Land Management. To that end, Browne’s job was to clarify Fall in the Field’s goals and plans. SOU’s environmental education faculty guides the master’s students through the process, but Boehnlein said her and her classmates took the reins, and are better for it. “I picked the program because it’s extremely well rounded,” Boehnlein said. “I knew that I would get a strong science background, which would help me in whatever course of education that I pursue as a career. And I also really appreciate, now more so than even when I applied, that it’s an extremely student-centered program. The Fall in the Field program is entirely planned by the graduate students. Our professors are an incredible support to us, but they really trust us to create a program that reflects what we want to do.” Browne agreed, and said she's excited finally put all her preparation to work and teach youngsters about the world around them. It was a big decision to leave a stable job behind and pursue a career change, but only weeks away from the first day of Fall in the Field she’s confident she made the right decision. “I’m happy about it,” she said. “I haven’t really started looking for jobs yet, but I’m sure there are plenty of opportunities, even if it’s just adjunct kind of work through Rogue Community College or SOU. There will be some opportunity that will be right in the field that I’m hoping to settle in.” By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@Joe_Zavala99 DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@Joe_Zavala99 Posted Aug. 11, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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