Hi-Line Living: Kids and Compasses

Sunnyside Intermediate School students were bused to Beaver Creek Park to take part in hikes and learn how to read compasses Tuesday.

The field trip to the park near the Jaycees Campground was part of a multi-day event for the students, who were able to apply math to real-life situations.

Joel Hagen was one of the Sunnyside teachers who helped with the activities in Beaver Creek.

"They get very good spatial awareness skills and learn how to apply real math in the real world," Hagen said. "They work using an actual piece of equipment in a real setting instead of in a classroom."

The children learn how to use land points and work together, while getting some exercise, Hagen said, as well as taking part in "just some good bonding activities"

Hagen said he has been teaching at Sunnyside for five years and this trip had the best weather of all of them.

In addition to the compass-work, the children got to hike to the top of Mount Otis.

As part of the day's acivities, Sunnyside Counselor Jerry Wier spoke to the children about the importance of keeping the park clean.

"One of the most important things about this park is that we want to leave it the way we find it," he told the children, also urging that they pick up any trash they come across, even if it might not be theirs.

"We want to keep this place the way it's meant to be," Wier said.

Wier also gave the kids some background information about Beaver Creek Park, the largest county park in the United States, before they set off in groups to find stakes placed throughout the area.

The groups had to start at a stake and then orient themselves using a compass and a key sheet that let them know in what angle on the compass they should begin walking and how many steps it would take to reach the next stake.

Pam Wilson was in charge of the activity. She said that the compass course would take the children through the hills near the Jaycees Campground and test their geometry knowledge and compass-reading skills they learned throughout the week.

Wilson used to teach at Sunnyside, but now teaches education at Montana State University-Northern. Every year she volunteers to help Sunnyside with this event.

"I'll spend three days in the classroom with these students teaching them everything and then the fourth day is coming out and taking the field trip," Wilson said.

In the classroom, the students learn how to read a map, read a compass and pick out landmarks and other skills that would be useful to them during the field trip and possibly for their lives.

Wilson said one of the most important things the kids can learn from the activities is how to cooperate with each other.

"They're learning that you work in pairs in the wilderness," Wilson said. "You never go by yourself."

Half of the Sunnyside class followed Wilson's instructions to find the compass points in the park, while the other half hiked Mount Otis with her husband, who talked about the park with them as they climbed

She said the school has been taking its students orienteering through the park since 1975.

Wilson brought three Northern students with her to volunteer with the day's events.

"We're teaching the kids orienteering, so that means how to use a compass and park safety," said Kelly Johns, a senior at Northern majoring in education. "... The kids are really excited to be out here."

Johns said that she and the other two Northern students, Kendra Pearson and Karly Evans, get credit for their courses from volunteering in the orienteering activities, but added that it was mainly "just for fun."