Drive by Bayview School and you may see students outside with shovels and axes digging holes and chopping underbrush in the woods near the school.

No, they’re not playing hooky. The students are high schoolers doing hands-on learning and field work in an environmental science education class. They spend one class a week in their outdoor classroom.

Eric Hood, the science teacher at Bayview, came up with the idea to use the outdoors as a venue for teaching. Hood says a positive outcome of the outdoor experience is that kids become more focused on the learning process both in the classroom and in the field.

Student Jeff Riggs agrees.

“It is much more meaningful to actually see native plants in the environment and to learn about invasive plants by pulling them out of the ground,” Riggs said.

“Plus, we just like getting outdoors and doing something physical,” he said as he took a break from chopping a dead tree.

Hood agrees that a side benefit to the outdoor classroom is better health.

“They can experience the benefits of exercising in the outdoors,” Hood said.

Another important element of the class is the monthly, off-island excursions.

So far this year the students have explored the old mining town of Monte Cristo, where they hiked up to Glacier Basin. A second trip they hiked to Heather Lake, near Granite Falls, to study mushrooms.

According to Hood the students found “a bunch of fungi,” but the class agreed the snowball fight at the lake was the highlight.

Later this month the teens will visit an old-growth forest along the Boulder River east of Arlington.

Closer to home, the class spent a day helping to restore Quade Creek in the Maxwelton watershed.

The students worked with John Hastings of Whidbey Watershed Stewards, formerly the Maxwelton Salmon Adventure, to restore native plantings along the middle portion of the three-mile long stream. Quade Creek is a major tributary to Maxwelton Creek.

The students helped plant riparian vegetation along the edges of the stream.

“They are a great group of kids. I enjoyed working with them. Those teenage boys are a hardworking group,” Hastings said.

“It was nice to have the help and the company on the project,” he said.

Back at school the students are expected to continue working on the reforestation project.

The class curriculum includes restoration and maintenance of local forest ecosystem and community service projects like Quade Creek with environmental education emphasis.

The environmental education class also benefits the school by cleaning up the wooded areas around the historic school house.

To begin the project, students mapped the school’s campus and included all the structures there as well as the plant life.

Once that was completed, the students began restoring the forest by pulling out invasive plants like ivy and blackberries, clearing space for rooting native underbrush like salal. Each student’s assignment is to restore a manageable section of Bayview forest with the goal of getting rid of non-native plants and putting in local ones, instead.

“This project will go on for several years before it’s completed,” Hood said.

Fall quarter was the first class to participate in the outdoor classroom.

Hood said he sees the class evolving to expose students to career paths that pique their interest, as well as giving them a close-up, hands-on experience that is challenging.

The practical application and demonstration of the students’ efforts will be detailed in their field journals and the seniors’ portfolio project.

A second feature of the class is off-island excursions to various ecosystems and habitats. Students also rescued plants from areas being cleared for development.

Hood says he hopes to add more elements, such as an on-site native nursery and an organic garden.

Gayle Saran can be reached at 221-5300 or gsaran@southwhidbeyrecord.com.