Materials for Day Hikes

Suggestions for Field Trips

Introduction

Taking a group of students outdoors can be intimidating. There are so many things that can go wrong; maybe it would be easier to stay in? Well, it would be easier, but the opportunities for learning outweigh any hassle. Hopefully this guide will help you to plan a trip with your students. Home

Guide to outdoor activities

Start with a positive attitude and encourage students in a positive manner. Make students aware of possible dangers, but do not frighten them.
Consider the physical limitations of the group. How far can they go in the time you have?
Scout out the area ahead of time. Find good rest spots, assess the trail, locate the toilets, etc.
Contact local agencies, (such as the Forest Service) for further information on the area. If you are going on private land, get permission well ahead of time, ideally in writing.
Plan your trip. Is it going to be full or half day? How much water, food, sunscreen, and insect repellent per person will you need? What kind of clothing, footwear, maps, and equipment? What activities are you going to do? What if it rains?
Prepare your students. Make sure the students know what to bring:
Sensible footwear means hiking boots or solid tennis shoes that are comfortable and worn in. Not Teva sandals.
Clothing, including rain gear, a sun hat, and layers in case it turns cold.
Water, at least 1 liter to 2 liters, in plastic containers. This is in addition to any soda or other drinks.
Food that can be eaten on the trail, GORP or granola bars, fruit etc.
Prepare students so they know:
To respect the land, plants, animals, and people.
Possible hazards and what to do if encountered.
To stay with their assigned buddy.
To alert the teacher if anything unusual happens.

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Safety

The best way to insure a safe trip is to make sure every student understands how to act safely. (See activities in the ethics chapter.) Proper preparation of the student will greatly reduce the chances of a serious injury.

The leader of the trip should be aware of any potential health problems, allergies, medications, diabetes, asthma etc., and be prepared with the appropriate response. There should also be at least one adult, (more is preferred), trained in American Red Cross first aid and CPR. Each group should have a first aid kit available.

A cell phone is a great insurance policy. Make sure yours is charged and you have the important phone numbers.

Health

Grand Junction is a desert, so proper hydration is vital. Make sure your students are all carrying water-- pop, milk, tea, or other liquids are not substitutes. Remind everyone to drink regularly. It is very easy to over-heat, and drinking lots of water and staying out of the sun will prevent sunstroke.

Your students are not going to starve on a day hike, but having enough food will certainly keep their spirits up during the hike. Being active outdoors burns a lot of calories, but heat might make some people less inclined to eat. To encourage eating, have students bring several small snacks rather than one large meal.

Volunteers

Have clear expectations for behavior for the volunteers. They should model safe and ethical behavior at all times. If possible, meet with all the volunteers a couple days before the trip to go over the plan.

Potential Hazards

Falls

Students falling on the trail usually causes minor injuries, although broken bones can result. A splint is a useful addition to the kit for these emergencies.

Higher falls from trees or cliffs are very dangerous and are best prevented by not allowing students into the situation. Training students in the classroom to be aware of these situations is vital.

Water

Water dangers vary from ice or water making a trail slippery to drowning. Teachers should be ultra vigilant when students are near water. If a student is in the water, an adult should be directly supervising that student. Streams and rivers should be avoided during spring run off, as the waters are deadly that time of year.

Heat and Cold

Students should be taught what kind of dress is appropriate for the conditions, and checked often. Simply asking how they are feeling should suffice as students are very willing to express discomfort. The trick is knowing when the situation is dangerous. Heat stroke, dehydration, hypothermia, sunburn, and frostbite can all occur. Adults should be aware of the symptoms of these conditions. Frequent short rest breaks, where the teachers remind students to drink, help reduce overheating.

Animal Bites

The treatment of all animal bites is the same. Clean the wound and get the person to the hospital. Anyone who is bitten by a wild animal needs medical attention.

Snake and spider bites are treated as above. DO NOT cut the wound and suck the venom. Instead, keep the victim calm, elevate the wound, ice the wound if possible, and get medical help.

Rattlesnake bites are rare, and can be avoided with vigilance. Watch where you place your feet and listen. Don't stick your hands under rocks, trees, etc. A good rule is to keep your hands in sight. If you encounter a snake observe it from a safe distance. It is unethical to kill a snake just for being a snake. Leave the snakes alone and they will return the favor.

Poisonous Plants

Unless you are an expert on edible plants, do not allow students to eat any plants or mushrooms. Some plants can be fatal if swallowed, especially by small children.

Other concerns are, contact poisons like Poison Ivy or cactus spines. Learn to identify Poison Ivy and Poison Oak and avoid it. (See first aid for treatment if needed.)

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Hints for Managing Children on the Trail

1. Have several adults for chaperones. Ask parents and other teachers to join you.

2. Keep them busy! Assign students jobs that they need to complete during the hike.

3. Keep them together! Stop often and do head counts.

4. Assign the fast kids to be scouts. They can map out the trail, look for specific plants or animals or return with specific information.

5. Pick your stopping points with regards to space for everyone to spread out.

6. Speak facing the sun so the audience doesn't have to squint to see you.

7. Stop every once in a while to update journals, drink water, take pictures, etc.

8. Adults should have assigned roles, i.e. front, middle, or back of the pack.

9. Children with special needs may have an adult or student assigned to help.

10. Have a First Aid kit for each group and someone who can use it.

11. Have a lot of activities available in case one doesn't work out.

12. Meet with all adults before the trip to insure they all understand the rules and procedures.

13. Teach children to look down to avoid Poison Ivy, cactus, spiders, and all the other stuff that can be in the wild.

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Quick Guide to Basic Outdoor Ethics

What should the rules be for a field trip?

Each teacher and school has standards of behavior and safety that they consider essential. Similarly, the National Park Service and BLM have established policies to preserve and protect both the resources in the parks, on public land and the visitor trying to enjoy them. All members of a field trip must respect and abide by these regulations. The following are guidelines to use while enjoying your favorite outdoor activities.

Ethics: A personal judgement about what's right and what's wrong; responsibility; standards of behavior (unwritten laws) that govern your behavior at all times.

Environmental Ethics:

Stay on designated trails.
Leave the environment in better condition than you found it. Pick up litter that you encounter and dispose of it properly, and make sure that you also carry out all of your own trash.
Never walk on cryptobioticsoil crusts. If you must walk off the trail, concentrate use in resistant areas. Avoid places where impact is just beginning.
Never deface rocks. You may not carve, scratch, scrape, paint, or alter rocks in any way that leaves a visible mark. It is not only wrong, it is against the law and punishable with fines.
Protect and conserve water resources.
If you must use fire, use it responsibly. Make sure you know fire conditions and regulations before you start your field trip.

Collecting Ethics:

Before you collect anything, consider what you want to do with your collection. You might consider taking pictures or drawing the speciman instead of actually collecting it. That way, you will not disturb the environment. If you do decide to collect, find out if permits are necessary for the area you will be collecting in. Your local Audubon Society should be able to give you this information.
You may collect for "scientific purposes" (bringing something in to study) in certain areas. You may only collect on BLM land. It is NOT legal to collect anything in National Parks. Before you rush out to gather wildflowers, remember that picking them is illegal in many areas of Colorado! You are likely to see signs to this effect at park entrances or trailheads on public lands. If you pick wildflowers on private land, be certain you have permission from the landowner.
Never collect rare items. If you only spot one of something, leave it. It may be endangered. Take only what you need for your collection. If you only need one sample, only take one sample.
Leave the environment looking natural and undisturbed. Don't dig huge holes, etc. You want to leave as small an impact on the environment as possible.
Never collect human artifacts (bones, fossils, arrowheads, pottery shards, etc.).
Keep living things alive and intact as long as possible, and provide humane treatment to all living things. Catch and release, if possible.

Animal Ethics

Never chase wildlife. Harassment of wild animals is unlawful.
Resist the urge to handle young wildlife. Wild baby animals look cute and helpless, but they usually have not been orphaned or abandoned, and their parents are often nearby.
Do not disturb wildlife, including mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish, insects, or spiders. This means that splashing in a creek where frogs have laid their eggs is not acceptable. Climbing on a rock where peregrin falcons or other birds are nesting, or throwing rocks to make a rabbit or snake move, is forbidden.
Do not feed or handle any wildlife. Some animals can carry disease, while others can inflict painful bites. Avoid rodent nests, and do not touch rodents, dead or alive, due to hantavirus infection. Plus, many rodents carry fleas which can pass on the plague.
If and when you do spot wildlife, STOP, stand still, and watch. By keeping your noise and movements to a minimum, you may be able to observe a lizard catching a fly, a deer chewing its cud, or a raven bringing nesting materials to its mate.
Practice "catch and release." If you find something special along a trail, look at it, enjoy it, or make a record of it by drawing, photographing, or writing about it. Show it to others in your group so that they may enjoy it too, then release it or return it to where you found it.

Other:

Respect the rights of other wildlife viewers. Making loud noises, sudden movements, or approaching the wildlife too closely is inappropriate.
Observe, respect, and abide by all NPS, DOW, BLM, etc. policies and regulations designed to preserve and protect both the resources in the parks and on private land, and the visitors trying to enjoy them.
Follow established trails in small groups, and walk single-file.
Enjoy rock artby viewing, sketching, or photographing. Never chalk trace, or otherwise touch or deface rock art.

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Field Notebooks

Having your students keep a real time journal or field notebook is a valuable addition to these activities. Keeping a field notebook allows students to capture thoughts, feelings, and questions while in the field to be discussed at a later time.

Materials

Any bound notebook will do, but the best is a composition book. You might consider getting one with graph paper if you will be collecting and graphing data.

Ideally the students should use pencil or waterproof pen, in case the notebook gets wet. But if this turns out to be impractical, any pen will work. Remember these are field notebooks. They are dropped, sat upon, used as umbrellas, flyswatters, and as an occasional plant press, so they need to be sturdy!

How to keep a field notebook

Entrees should have the date and time, including the year in the upper right hand corner. Start a new page each day. The times are entered in the left-hand margin, preferably using military time. Military time starts at midnight with 0000, noon is 1200, and 11pm is 2300. If you're not using military time be sure to put a.m. or p.m. Observations, notes, questions, and sketches are kept in the notebooks, as well as anything the teacher wants to assign.

Observations

Students need to develop a vocabulary that allows them to describe what they see. Here are some examples of things they might observe and write about.

Color

Encourage the use of the basic colors such as red, green, blue, yellow, orange, black, white, brown, and purple.

Shades

Dark, light, shiny, flat

Texture

Rough, bumpy, smooth, lined, ridged, hairy

Shape

Round, flat, oval

Size

Whenever possible, use metric measurement

Make sure to note any of the following:

Plants

Animals

Insects

Rocks

Landforms

Students need to be as thorough as possible. Some other important details to include are air temperature, cloud cover, wind speed, direction, precipitation, trail condition, people present or absent, and location.

Things collected need to include the exact location and details of the area. For example, is it moist or dry, are there cliffs, streams, etc. present.

Activities

Have students create a map of the area or a timeline of the day's events.

Have students spread out and sit and observe for 15 minutes. Ask the students to remain silent and write what they see, feel, hear, touch and taste.

Tape photographs into the notebook.

Keep a sketch diary.

Tape plant samples next to descriptions.

Vegetation Sampling

Materials

1 test grid per group
Plant field guides
Notebooks

Procedure

Can be made out of wood, plastic or metal, and can be of any size as long as the size is known and uniform.

Percent cover

Randomly place the grid on the ground, one way is to toss a pebble over the shoulder, then center the grid on the pebble.

Estimate the percent cover, this means the amount of earth covered. ½ meter and ¼ meter sheets of paper help to estimate. Have two or three people estimate and take the average. Record in field notebook (see suggested data table). Count the different types of plants in each grid and record. Record the names of all the plants that can be identified.

Repeat until a representative sample is achieved.