Written by Met Sac teachers: “I have to go on a field trip with my school to Headwaters Science Institute,” I thought, when I first heard about the trip. However, soon after pulling up to meet Meg and Spencer, I found that it was actually a privilege to be with them. They are very knowledgeable people and know how to share their abundance of knowledge with us in an easy-to- understand way. They were extremely fun to spend time with and had just the right mix of funny jokes and professionalism.
Only a few of us in our class had ever done anything like this out in the field before. To start with we were lost and had no idea at all what to do. We worked in groups and learned about taking different types of samples and how to do certain tests. My favorite part was trying to find the macroinvertebrate in the water and try to identify them.
Being from Sacramento, where it never snows, we all had fun with our free time having snowball fights and bonding with each other. In the lodge they had multiple rooms with couches that were nice to hang out in. They also had a ping pong table which was a lot of fun to challenge friends on.
One evening, our group went on a night hike and it was amazing to experience the area in a new light. You could see the silhouettes of other people but not the details of their faces. With not being able to see the fine details you would have to listen more to your surroundings to know if someone was over in the dark of the shadow. On the hike we stopped to look at the stars, which were a lot more visible in the sky compared to back home in Sacramento.
We also went on a hike to see the petroglyphs, rock on rock art. On the way we went through some old train tunnels and learned some history. When we go to the petroglyphs some of the creative students made up stories about what all the different symbols meant, which were very engaging.
By the end when we all finished presenting on our various projects all of us were a little sad. We had all had so much fun working together and finishing our projects meant going back home. Most of us wanted to stay and were ready to do another project and stay a few more days. By the end of our time with Headwaters, the teachers that came with us were already talking about the next time we were going to come back and all the interesting things we would do.
-Ryan Kizer, Met Sac rising senior
