Where can I go to find out?

Let's go ask "Doc" !!!!

"Amazing Ash"

was selected as one of the

10 best science lessons in the United States by the

American Association for the Advancement of Science

in February 2004.

Learning about survival was embedded in the natural world. Children and young adults learned the survival skills that relied on their own methodologies of scientific observations and resulted in recognizing topographic changes in the land, honing the ability to find water, knowing were to find needed earth materials such as clay, understanding the behavior of animals, and recognizing the habitat of important health plants such as willow.

These are the same skills that professional scientists use today. The language changed but not the skills. Now these are called: geomorphology, hydrology, geology, zoology, and botany. In the old days, the knowledge kept you alive. Today it keeps you employed. In the future, it will teach all Americans how to create sustainable habitats that protect the people, the land, the animals, the plants, the water, and the whole Earth.

Today’s kids are being raised by the TV. These young scientists do, on occasion, watch the Discovery Channel. But, in front of theTV, they don’t fall down, climb high, get dirty, swim in a stream, get bug bites, cure them with a root, get stuck with seeds and prickers, learn how to avoid them, get knocked in the head with branches, learn how to know a trail, recognize important noises, smell water sources, or feel the sun in their faces. Only outdoors activities give them the skills to work outdoors as adults.

Explorer’s Club is being held monthly or periodically for 6-12 year olds on five reservations (Pala, La Jolla, Viejas, Campo, and Jamul). A summer program is getting underway for kids at Sycuan, and another is in the works for urban Native American kids in Logan Heights.

The activities include: panning for gold and magnetite, collecting rocks, climbing a big hill, hunting for lizards, collecting wildflowers, and exploring the four directions. Special activities help meet the objectives of the Education or Recreation Directors who gather the kids and often feed them on these 1 to 4 hour programs.

Parents like Explorer’s Club because it is structured outdoors activity. Not only that, the children are learning how to protect themselves from the two biggest problems in San Diego County--rattlesnakes and poison oak.

The nice part for the scientists is being able to tell the kids that there are real science jobs on every reservation. Hydrologists, soil scientists, ecologists, water chemists, range managers, and GIS specialists find jobs on reservations.

We all know that the path from childhood observer to professional scientist requires going to 1, 2, or 3 colleges in between to get degrees. Therefore the adults ask the kids: “so, what are you planning to do after you get your PhD?” The kids vote with their feet when they run back for more. If they don’t like the activities, they don’t return. The most commonly heard sentence out of their mouths: “when are we going to do that again.” This is the sound of something going right.