Most lessons were, literally, hands-on, from touching and smelling soils to testing water for chemicals to identifying plants.
Another lesson, writing a poem, was more an exercise of the mind but it also involved the hands, using a pen or pencil and paper to express thoughts on paper.
As junior soil scientists, hydrologists, botanists and poets, they also learned real-life lessons about working in the outdoors, that every day is not heavenly and some, such as Friday, require tolerance for dust- and debris-scattering wind gusts up to nearly 50 mph.
The 57 Vaca Peña students in Karen Olson's seventh-grade science classes spent the morning and early afternoon at Rush Ranch Open Space. There, after learning about the marsh and watershed ecology in the classroom, they enjoyed a day on an activity-filled field trip, exploring part of the largest contiguous brackish tidal marshes remaining on the west coast of North America, south of Suisun City, just off Grizzly Island Road.
They were part of 27 classes and nearly 900 students from Vacaville and Fairfield who visited -- or will visit -- the 149-year-old Solano Land Trust property from September to December.
As students clambered off a big yellow bus and formed three groups, Marianne Butler, environmental education program manager for the Solano Resource Conservation District, said the idea, through four class sessions, was to teach the students about the marsh's "amazing" ecosystem, and then apply that knowledge during the field trip.
For example, in the classroom, program staff members taught how an invasive, non-native species, such as pepperweed, can harm a native plant, such as pickleweed, which provides a safe habitat for many native marsh animals, among them the endangered marsh harvest mouse. At the marsh, the students could imagine how the ecosystem could change, and what could be lost with those changes, Butler said.
During a brief orientation, Butler quizzed the students on several things: the difference between "wetland" soil and "upland," or grassland, soil; the definition of a native plant (an example? the California poppy); and the definition of a non-native, or invasive, plant.
Eventually, the three groups -- many of the students clad in blue Vaca Pena Panthers sweatshirts -- took separate paths to different parts of the ranch, a 1,050-acre property that accounts for more than 10 percent of the remaining wetland area in California.
After leaving the visitor's center, flanked by towering eucalyptus trees bending in the wind and a 100-year-old barn painted white, Olson walked along a road and noted that the children surprised her with unexpected observations and comments.
"Many of them said, 'I got to smell dirt' (for the first time)," she said, smiling.
Standing with his group, bracing against wind gusts, volunteer Don Broderson, a program educator, asked, "What is soil?"
"Soil is a mixture of rock or minerals and organic matter," he explained. "Organic ... what does that mean? Living? Right, things that are in the soil -- plants, dead animals ..."
Looking downward, astride a buried boulder, its stop visible along a pathway, Broderson said, "Color's important. Pay attention to color of soil and the color of rock. Why is soil darker than rock? Organic matter! Right!"
Meanwhile, at some distance away along the South Pasture Trail, Butler and her 10 students discussed the nature of water.
"Do you think there's oxygen in water?" she asked. "Typically, in marshes, there's less oxygen."
And turbidity? What is turbidity?
"How clear or how cloudy the water is," one student piped up.
At Rush Ranch, a working cattle ranch, the students were able to see wildlife every day.
The classes that visited in early autumn saw cow calves and horse foals with their mothers, and every class sees the resident barn owl, asleep in the barn, as well as birds, rabbits and other creatures, noted Butler.
To cap off the day, the students wrote poems to commemorate their day. The writings will be submitted to the River of Words international art and poetry contest, said Olson.
Solano and Suisun Resource Conservation districts developed the program, in its sixth year. It is funded by the Solano County Water Agency, which will continues its support for at least another three years, providing "leveraging" for a State Parks Habitat Conservation Fund grant, which is now in the second of four program years, said Butler. The Fairfield Suisun Sewer District provided additional money for busing, she noted.
At the end of second program year, as estimated 11,000 children will have taken field trips to explore county open space in a way that meets state education standards, said Butler, adding that a major goal is to expand it to reach as many sixth-graders as possible.
Follow Staff Writer Richard Bammer at RBammer@TheReporter.com.