Adventure Cascades, which I have written about before, is teaming up with partners to get kids into the outdoors to study natural resources and reinforce STEM (Science, technology, engineering and math) concepts.
Brian Pernick of Adventure Cascades gave me a call last week to chat about it, and he sent over these photos of their first trip, which was on Friday. The group took a rafting trip on the Sauk River. The youth participants learned how to take water samples and measure the river’s stream flow, turbidity and conductivity.
The goal of the program is to design scientific research regarding the Oso mudslide and the surrounding ecosystems. It is meant to get kids outdoors, give them a chance to learn more about where they live, and strengthen their education.
The partnership includes:
- WSU Forestry Extension, which is providing scientific knowledge and loaning equipment to study forestry related issues.
- Adventure Cascades, which is offering recreational expertise and water quality monitoring and providing rafting access to the river corridors.
- North County Family Services, which will be providing community support and recruiting participants from ages 13 to 18.
- A consortium of state and national conservation and outdoor recreation organizations, including Thomas O’Keefe of American Whitewater, will be providing scientific and outdoor recreation management expertise.
We’ll write about the program more soon, but for now click through the photos above to see what the group was up to last week.
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