Adventure Calling Oasis Elementary School

JTREE proposed a day camp program for Oasis Elementary School, located in Twentynine Palms, CA with student enrollment just under 500 students, that will provided outdoor access to all students grades TK-6. The grant award supports these outdoor activities both at the school site and inside Joshua Tree National Park for a period covering 3 academic school years. Beginning in fall of 2023, the first year’s program will extend to spring of 2024.

Over the academic school year, students will participate in school site outdoor activities and activities inside Joshua Tree National Park, each with an established activity goal and associated curriculum aligned with content standards for California public schools including but not limited to Next Generation Science Standards.

PLANNED ACTIVITIES
In the Oasis Elementary School Community, activity goals are:

• Reviving the Oasis – All students will be partaking in the planting, observation, and nurturing of seedlings to grow in their own home surroundings. Students ages 4-11 years old will gain an awareness over minimum of 3-year grant performance period of the environment in which they live, and what plants need to thrive in the desert. The capacity will increase through the number of students involved over a 3-year period talking with their families about taking care of the environment, and families in turn sharing with other community members. The legacy will be their care and understanding of how plants grow, and the understanding of the interdependency of all living things on Earth. The ultimate goal is inspiring lifelong stewards of the earth through activities, experiences, and sharing with others in the community.
• Solar Impacts – Through projects and experiments, students learn about the impacts of the sun done at their school site. All students can then partake in a community celebration of the night sky to increase their understanding of how degraded air quality and light pollution can negatively affect the quality of the human environment and the ecology of the night environment. Students ages 4-11 years old will share stories, produce art and write to gain an awareness over a minimum of 3-year grant performance period of the night sky environment where they live. The capacity will increase through the number of students involved over a 3-year period talking with their families about taking care of the environment, and families in turn sharing with other community members. The legacy will be their understanding of the value of night sky, and the understanding of the interdependency of all living things on Earth. The ultimate goal is inspiring lifelong stewards of the earth through activities, experiences, and sharing with others in the community.
• Learning History – All students will research the early homesteaders and Indigenous people of the area. JTREE will invite guests from 29 Palms Band of Mission Indians of the Chemhuevi Tribe. Students ages 4-11 years old will gain an awareness over minimum of 3-year grant performance period of the environment in which they live, and what plants need to thrive in the desert and why they are so important to the Tribe’s people. The capacity will increase through the number of students involved over a 3-year period talking with their families about taking care of the environment, and families in turn sharing with other community members. The legacy will be students understanding of how environmental factors influenced historical and prehistorical settlement, and the broader interdependency of all living things on Earth. The ultimate goal is inspiring lifelong stewards of the earth through activities, experiences, and sharing with others in the community.
• Safety in the Desert – All students will learn about safety needed for living in the desert (i.e. water needed for hiking, animals and insects in the area, proper clothing for the desert climate). Students will host a share day with parents and community members, explaining the desert environment and how to be safe. The legacy will be their care and understanding of how to safely live in the desert, and how these observations relate to an understanding of the interdependency of all living things on Earth. The ultimate goal is inspiring lifelong stewards of the earth through activities, experiences, and sharing with others in the community.
• Living, Breathing, and Learning Outdoors – All students will contribute to the establishment of an outdoor learning space at the school site by studying the effects of weather and climate, water cycle, vegetation and soil conditions on land use. During the school year (fall through spring students will be nurturing their oasis gardens. In spring, they will examine the results of their work. Their legacy will be to maintain an outdoor space at their school that can be used as an outdoor space for continued learning by all grades at their school. 
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NATURAL AREA TRIPS
Students will be transported by school bus to locations inside Joshua Tree National Park for their Natural Area Trips. Participants will be given specific time during the natural trip experience to reflect on sights, smells, and sounds heard in the natural area, and express themselves through personal writing and quiet time. The curriculum design will also allow for students to work in a small group to discover what appeals to them in the natural area. The site lends itself to short hikes, and opportunities to see nature in many different forms (rocks, plants, animals).

Natural Area Trip topics will include:

• Understanding Outdoors
• Ready or Not
• On the Road Traveling: Notice the subtle differences
• Our Desert Ecosystem – 3rd Grade classes will join 6th grade classes on this trip where 6th grade students will mentor the 3rd grade students teaching them about what they have learned.
• Let’s Get Together – 6th Grade classes collaborate together to create and present what they have learned through the program to their school families and other community members.