Mount Madonna Students Get Outside

Founded in 1979, is a non-religious, independent school focusing on rigorous academics balanced with arts, athletics, and hands-on environmental learning for students PreK through grade 12. MMS supports its students in becoming caring, self-aware and articulate critical thinkers, who are prepared to meet challenges with perseverance, creativity and integrity. The CAIS and WASC accredited program emphasizes academic excellence, creative self-expression and positive character development.

Outdoor School

Even as students enjoyed their last few summer days, preparations were underway for a return to school classrooms. But what if school didn’t start inside, but outdoors, underneath the redwood canopy—surrounded by tents, friends, and the wafting smell of campfires?

For 6th through 8th graders at Mount Madonna School (MMS) that’s just how school began earlier this month—with a kick-off field trip that including hiking, swimming, science studies and camping at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park.

Co-led by teacher Bob Caplan, the four-day trip is an annual tradition, and one of several enrichment opportunities MMS students participate in throughout the year.

“The trip provides a much-needed transition from the carefree summer days to the responsibility of school days,” explains Caplan. “New and returning students and adult chaperones share an equal footing in the setting of a magnificent state park, where we combine the sheer frolic of river, ocean, campfire and tent; the wonders of identifying flora, fauna and celestial bodies; and the rigors of feeding 60 hungry people three meals each day.”

The chaperone crew is comprised of faculty, parents and MMS alumni, creating an atmosphere of camaraderie and role modeling across age groups. “Hidden strengths emerge,” comments Caplan, “friendships are formed and renewed, adolescents and adults live, work, and play together. When we do show up for classes back at school, there seems to be more of a family feel from having shared this experience.”

Pond Clean-Up

Middle school students at Mount Madonna School combined a hands-on science lesson with a chance to “cool off” during last week’s hot weather, by wading and swimming in the School’s lake and removing—handful by handful—the abundant elodea that thrives there. Elodea, an invasive aquatic plant often used in aquariums is damaging to the lake’s ecology when left to grow unchecked.

About two dozen students helped with the effort, piling up numerous large mounds of elodea on the shore to later be hauled off to the compost pile! Overseeing the effort was middle school math and science teacher James ‘PD’ Rohan, who explains the motivation for his students' participation:

“Invasive species can be detrimental to the life of native species in many ways,” says Rohan. “For our lake habitat the elodea crowds out native grasses, such as tulle, and other wetland plants such as cattails; and burrows deep into the lake bottom where they spread out, reducing the habitat range of fish, frogs, and newts. Eventually, if left unchecked, they can cause the lake to dry up completely (as is happening, for example, at nearby Freedom Lake in Watsonville, where invasive water hyacinth has fully covered the lake’s surface).

“Students learned about the topic, enjoyed the activity and had a few minutes for ‘free swim’ afterwards.”

—Leigh Ann Clifton