[MUSIC] LAUREN MELINK: Does this look like school to you?

Does this look like a classroom?

SCHOOLKIDS: At normal school you're just sitting at a desk and like that.

But here you're walking around doing stuff, learning about nature.

It's really cool.

MELINK: Where are the pencils?

Where are the books?

LORA STRANGE, TEACHER: They're actually touching it, feeling it, smelling it.

We're basically firing up all the pathways of our brain.

MELINK: Can this really be a college class?

JENNIFER LADINO, U OF I PROFESSOR: There's something about humility and recognizing one's relationship to the world around you that is really important and it just happens magically and kind of automatically at Taylor.

BRIAN KENNEDY, U OF I PROFESSOR: They get an incredible learning experience.

Everybody's being challenged in their own way, and learning from it, growing from it.

MELINK: Being outdoors is essential to life in Idaho.

So it's no surprise that more schools, more teachers, are recognizing that the great outdoors can be a great teaching tool.

HANNAH VALENTINE, STUDENT: I cannot sit another semester in the classrooms.

I love it.

I love it so much.

MELINK: Come along as we explore the many ways the natural world provides the lessons and the learning space.

MEGAN DIXON, COLLEGE OF IDAHO LECTURER: Winter is just such an amazing teacher.

MELINK: When nature is the classroom.

ANNOUNCER: Funding for Outdoor Idaho is made possible by the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation, committed to fulfilling the Moore and Bettis Family Legacy of building the great state of Idaho; by the Friends of Idaho Public Television; by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; and by the Idaho Public Television Endowment.

[MUSIC] [NATURE SOUNDS] [MUSIC] MAURA GOLDSTEIN, ROOTS SCHOOL DIRECTOR: Winter in McCall is really special, and we try to find as many ways as possible to celebrate it.

MELINK: At the Roots Forest School, in winter, in McCall, there are no snow days.

PARENT: Let's go put your backpack away.

MELINK: Or, more accurately, every day is a snow day.

GOLDSTEIN: Every day we're celebrating the snow.

We love the snow.

Parents transport their own children here.

So as long as we can get here into the park and as long as the staff can get here safely, we are open.

MELINK: Roots is part of a growing movement of outdoor "forest schools," where every class, every day, is conducted outdoors.

And the answer to your very first question is .

yes.

GOLDSTEIN: So we get the question a lot about where the children go to the bathroom and we give them the choice.

As long as we're near one of the indoor restrooms, they can choose to use that.

Or we have trees marked in the forest with yellow flagging.

That's where they can go pee if they need to do that.

MELINK: Today more than 1,000 outdoor preschools operate in at least 44 states, with at least 18 across Idaho.

The Roots School in McCall, and EverWild in the Treasure Valley, are among the outdoor-only "forest schools" in Idaho.

Outdoor school can look like fun, and certainly it is.

But there's more to Roots than just snow forts and snow angels.

TARA SANDERS, ROOTS TEACHER AND PARENT: We're not just sending our kids out into the woods, doing this really crazy preschool thing.

There is so much guided discovery that is happening while they're experiencing this.

And so I don't think people always see some of those more subtle things, like, what we're trying to instill with the natural consequences and, and the independence.

We're really big on them being independent thinkers and movers and doers.

GOLDSTEIN: A lot of the advantages of this outdoor learning relate to just that, personal responsibility and taking care of your needs and advocating for your needs.

Communicating to a teacher that you are cold and you need a new pair of mittens.

The children's ability to move their bodies the way that they want to and explore and assess risk and gain independence.

Out here the kids are able to ask questions and receive answers right away from the environment.

TEACHER: What is that number right there?

MELINK: Math, measuring, meteorology and more.

When the subject is frozen Payette Lake, the day's lessons are right underfoot.

GOLDSTEIN: We're going to use this to explore the lake ice.

GOLDSTEIN: And there's a lot to be learned from that, right?

There's the seasonal changes like today I was talking with children about this is the lake that you swim in in the summer.

You know, have you ever been on this frozen lake?

And they were asking, well, how did it freeze?

So just getting them to think about weather phenomena.

When we were drilling, you know, learning that it's going to take effort and it's going to take time.

And we're working together and we're collaborating and we're taking turns, which is something that is prevalent in a lot of what we do.

And then we have some of the early math concepts coming in by using tape measures and identifying numbers and thinking about thickness and the concepts of greater than and less than.

It's a really rich activity for us, and it might be the only time they ever do that.

[KIDS TALKING] SANDERS: We talked a little bit about fish living underneath the ice, with the idea that they understand that there's still a whole other world underneath this, this ice.

They get a lot of dialog in what the animals in the forest do for different parts of the season.

MELINK: Traditional preschool lessons on sharing and cooperating are delivered along with real-time lessons about personal responsibility.

SANDERS: If you take your gloves off, it is cold outside and your fingers are going to get cold and they'll probably start to hurt.

We won't have as much fun if our fingers are cold and hurting.

The layering is a big thing.

We have to be really careful about, you know, what they're wearing and how they're wearing it and keeping it on in these temperatures.

SACHA JACKSON, PARENT: We just dress him up in lots of layers and he runs around and he burns hot.

He's fine.

We just play outside as much as we can anyways, on a general day.

And so this is just a natural fit into what he's normally doing.

He's about to be a big brother.

We are fortunate because Roots lets the babies come along to class as well.

And so the baby will just be in class next year with him every Tuesday or Friday.

[TEACHER READING] EMMA WOODWORTH, ROOTS SCHOOL TEACHER: Kids are so tactile and they really learn by exploring and by just kind of checking things out for themselves.

And when you're inside, you have to give a lot of reminders about like inside voices and don't run.

But outside they can run around, they can climb on things and they can really get up close and personal with the mud and pine needles and everything.

We have all of the snow.

That just adds a totally different experience.

If we were inside, it would just kind of be the same year-round and out here we really get to feel the seasons and be where kids learn best.

[CHILDREN TALKING] MELINK: Outdoor school, for most Idaho students, is not every day and not year-round.

In fact, for most students, it's a once-in-a-lifetime special trip.

And in Idaho, that often means camping at MOSS - the McCall Outdoor Science School on the shores of Payette Lake.

It's the best known of Idaho's outdoor school programs and campuses.

ARIEL NELSON, GRADUATE STUDENT: One of the things that MOSS really tries to do is give kids an opportunity to explore things that they care about and things that they're interested in.

It's an exploratory, curiosity-driven experience.

And I think when people are given the opportunity to do that outdoors it is something that fosters a care and a passion for the world around you.

A lot of times environmental education can be really focused on something somewhere else, you know, like the Amazon rainforest.

When you get the opportunity to like, touch the soil with your fingers or smell what a sagebrush smells like, rubbing it between your fingers, you get to connect with the world in a way that I think a lot of people have lost.

SAMANTHA BARNES, TEACHER, RIVERSTONE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL: As an international school where we're very involved in the world, it's very important for them to be aware of how to help protect that world and take care of that world and coexist with that world.

There's a difference between being in a classroom and being outdoors.

And I can see the difference in these kids already in being outside and being able to kind of run around and hiking three miles a day and how that kind of is allowing them to get out some of that energy that they've got.

[MUSIC] MELINK: MOSS operates year-round, so students may get to swim or canoe in Payette Lake, or hike or snowshoe through Ponderosa State Park.

They eat in a big mess hall and sleep on rustic bunks in noisy cabins — all part of the MOSS experience.

KIDS TALKING: So we throw my toy dragon from bunk bed to bunk bed.

Trying not to drop him.

The first night was awful, awful.

It's probably because we had a lot of energy.

But the next day we hiked around.

We were tired, so it's easy to go to sleep.

BARNES: For some of them, this is their first time away from home without parents.

So it's a great experience for them to learn how to be a little bit more independent.

And for some of them, this might be the first time they've been surrounded by a forest, which is really, really amazing.

And Ponderosa State Park is such a great park.

So it's really awesome that they get to come up here and enjoy the weather and, well, maybe not enjoy the weather so much right now, but enjoy the outdoors.

KARLA EITEL, DIRECTOR, MCCALL FIELD CAMPUS: There's a lot that a young person can learn just by directly observing that tree or the sagebrush or the way that the water moves or what's in the water.

We think of this like getting out of the way so that learning can happen, because young people have such a great curiosity and the ability to just learn from the trees and the animals and the water and the rocks that are around us.

STEVE HAZELTON, PARENT: I never got this as a child and I do think it's really a rewarding experience for the kids.

I think it takes them a little bit out of their comfort zone.

Not only are they building personally and learning independence and learning maybe a little toughness.

They have to learn how to pack their lunch in the morning.

They have to learn how to get their water bottle together.

That's learning, too.

Just learning how to think for yourself.

BETH KOCHEVAR, MOSS PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR: Students can see themselves as part of the scientific community.

I think that's really impactful.

They practice science skills.

They ask questions and use their innate senses and collect data and make meaning from that data.

EITEL: We sort of encourage this idea that, yeah, you've got the tools to do science.

You've got a brain to ask questions, you've got senses that can explore the world, you can make meaning of what you were learning and you can show up and you can be a scientist here.

CHRISTA HOWARTH, MOSS GRADUATE: That's a huge aspect of our programming is to break down the image of a scientist as someone in a lab coat, or someone with a beard.

And instead to show students that science is a way of thinking and it's a way of interacting with the world and that it is totally accessible to everyone.

[CLASSROOM CONVERSATION] WAYNE BLIER, PARENT: In the classroom, they were talking a lot about geology and earth formations and how tectonic plates work.

For the students to actually get out and see rocks, see the mountains, you know, and not only hear about what happens after millions of years of earth movement, but actually see the impact of that in real life really helps them kind of cement those lessons.

HAZELTON: I was just amazed yesterday when I was talking to another chaperon, like, we don't even really need to be here.

They're just hanging out, doing what they're told and having fun.

[MUSIC] MELINK: Hands-on learning is the mission at MOSS.

And that's just as true for the graduate students learning to be teachers here.

ALYSSA UHL, GRADUATE STUDENT: Those MOSS principles of fostering the space of belonging and independence and self-efficacy, it also stands for us instructors as well.

I'm given the space to try new things in practice, but also the guidance to adapt when things don't go as well as I hope.

MELINK: The University of Idaho first operated the camp as a forestry school in the 1930s.

The 14-acre campus went through multiple incarnations until the early 2000s, when it became a place where student campers and student teachers learn together.

In its 20-year-plus history, MOSS has hosted more than 45,000 students and trained 342 would-be science educators.

And talk about outdoor ed!

These 18 teachers-in-training are learning outside and sleeping in yurts for the 10 and a half months they're here.

KAYLA DELANCEY, GRADUATE STUDENT: The cohort is really great and like the sense of community is amazing, and being able to like live with a bunch of people who I consider to be like close friends now at this point is really amazing.

We have, like, a cozy fire and couches in there, and it's really, it's a really nice environment to learn in.

We have little, like, fairy lights that we've decorated with it.

And, like, we decorated it for Halloween, too, which is really fun.

Being able to, like, talk to my classmates, I feel like I've learned an equal amount from them that I have from my actual professors too.

And there's just so many interesting people in our cohort and they have all these different backgrounds and all these different knowledges, and it's so cool to hear and learn from them as well.

UHL: This is kind of like a working-from-home situation for me, where I live right over here and I work right over there.

And so my commute is very short.

The proximity to the park, the proximity to everything around McCall, it's just a huge gift to get to have this space and to share with the other folks who live here.

NELSON: We have one week of our own classes where we do our own learning and it's all focused around place-based environmental education and the other alternating week where it's our teaching weeks, which is this week for us.

And then we just go through the semesters alternating between those weeks.

[MUSIC] MELINK: Although she now helps run the McCall Outdoor Science School, Beth Kochevar was once a graduate student here herself.

KOCHEVAR: I really enjoyed the hands-on nature of the programing and the alternation between taking courses and then teaching.

I thought that was really beneficial for me as an educator.

The outdoors is the world.

And I think that that is why it's important for students to learn outside.

The application of concepts into the real world is the work we need to be doing.

MELINK: Christa Howarth created a campus teaching garden where students get true hands-on experience with the living world.

HOWARTH: What I hope it will do is that it will provide a place for students to come back from their lessons in the day and then practice stewardship.

So not everyone is going to be a gardener when they grow up, but every single human eats food that comes from somewhere, and every single human drinks water that comes from somewhere.

And so no matter what our profession in life is, we are interacting with the natural world.

I had never considered a career in science until I discovered MOSS and now that's something I'm very interested in.

NELSON: Honestly, the opportunity to combine my love for nature with sharing that with other people has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

I really appreciate all of the faculty and the people who like make this whole show run.

It's really cool to see their hearts and how much they love what they're doing as we work together to make this happen.

MELINK: Winter, spring and fall, students come to MOSS with their elementary or middle school classes.

But McCall is at its most glorious in summer, and that's when college-prep programs bring high school students for integrated science instruction.

[STUDENT DISCUSSION] DANIELLE HALLETT, STUDENT: I am here for two weeks in McCall, Idaho, and I'm doing Environmental Science 1 and 2.

I am not a huge outdoor person and I wanted to get a better experience of it and become more out of my comfort zone.

And it's been a really great opportunity to meet new people, make new friends, get some sort of a college experience.

And I get four credits of school.

MELINK: Hallett came to MOSS with Upward Bound, a University of Idaho program for prospective first-generation college students.

HEATHER EBBA MAIB, DIRECTOR, BENEWAH-LATAH UPWARD BOUND: We do an immersive dual-credit experience, an outdoor-learning experience where our students earn four college credits and two high school credits.

And what better way to do that than at MOSS.

Their lab experience at MOSS is going out into the field, taking water samples, analyzing dirt, learning about trees and tree health and the health of the world around them.

And they're learning how to engage as college students because they are college students in this setting.

[CONVERSATION] MELINK: The HOIST program does the same for Northwest indigenous students.

HOIST stands for Help Orient Indian Students into STEM.

SYDEL SAMUELS, DIRECTOR, U OF I NATIVE AMERICAN STUDENT CENTER: If you think of the statistics of our nation and statistics of Native students in K-12 and post-secondary education, the numbers can be dismal.

And I think it is because we need to incorporate those concepts that our students already understand.

If you think about stick game, that is a lot of statistics.

It's a lot of counting.

One thing our students are looking for, is how can I make this relate to who I am?

UHL: Today's prompt is related to water.

We're about to hike along a creek to a beautiful falls.

We're going to write about factors that affect your home watersheds.

SAMUELS: When we do get outdoors, when we're doing hands-on activities, they're more engaged, they're happy.

You'll see them smiling.

They take interest in how other people are doing.

SAMUEL GREENE, STUDENT: I love coming here.

Plus, this is my ancestral land, the Nez Perce, Nimiipuu.

[MUSIC FADES] Walking on this land that my ancestors walked on is extraordinary.

Thinking about it and how they walked on this land and how they migrated and gathered resources and all that.

I really want to maintain and protect this land and exercise our treaty rights.

[SINGING] SAMUELS: Often that can be difficult for a student to be the voice of all Nez Perce students or all Shoshone-Bannock students.

And so when they're here with HOIST and in nature and in our homelands, they're able to laugh and joke and play their cultural games and be themselves.

[STUDENTS CHEERING] AMARIANA WILLINGHAM, STUDENT: You only got one life, you know?

You might as well use it and come out here where it's fresh, clean, you know?

It's, like, it's beautiful here.

And you can actually take a minute to breathe and focus on yourself.

[MUSIC] UHL: It's cool to be a resource, especially for first-generation students looking to go into college, but a bit intimidated by the idea.

Especially with some of our rural students that come in and it just isn't a practice of their family.

And so they have a lot of questions.

HALLETT: I was a little nervous at first, but I'm definitely getting used to it by the minute.

And I'm getting along great with everybody and being outside, I'm never on my phone, ever.

And it's just really great to be outdoors in fresh air and really good food.

[SOUND OF DINNER BELL] WAYLAN MARSHALL, STUDENT: The food's awesome.

Shout out to the cooks in the mess hall, because, like, I've never ate so good at a camp before.

There's been some hiccups like homesick and stuff like that because I'm five hours away from home.

It's been awesome for the past three days.

LEADER: I remember that.

Elliott?

MARYAH ERICKSON, PEER MENTOR: Since I took the class last year, I'm kind of like a tutor, but I can help the students one on one, like as another student.

So it's kind of more like relatable.

MOSS last year really kind of transformed how I thought about things and kind of made me more open-minded, like, to more learning experiences outdoors and stuff like that, because I'm not like an outdoorsy person, but definitely started liking outdoors after last year.

KIRSTEN LAPAGLIA, DIRECTOR, U OF I STEM ACCESS: When we are here at MOSS for a two-week program, there's a lot of community-building that happens.

The students often don't know each other, and so they have to actively work to relate to each other.

[MUSIC] The ability to build relationships, build networks, to feel confident about science, and to feel like we are in charge of what we are learning, that is what has been also shown in the research to be the most important factors for students to have long-term success in learning.

[STUDENTS TALKING] LAPAGLIA: Increasingly, almost all careers are asking us to include technology to be able to figure out when there's problems.

And that often requires asking scientific questions.

MOSS is one of the best places to be able to provide that kind of education.

MAIB: Science education is so important, but for us, this experience is about understanding how to learn.

It's about understanding how to engage in a college class.

For me, it's less about the subject we're covering and more about the environment we're bringing them to.

HALIE BOGDEN, STUDENT: I really want to go into environmental sciences, like as a career.

And so having this opportunity so young was just, it felt kind of perfect.

[MUSIC] MELINK: Students who find a week or two at MOSS rewarding might want to consider a college program that offers a month, or more, studying in the outdoors.

SCOTT KNICKERBOCKER, COLLEGE OF IDAHO PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES: We are in Stanley, Idaho.

We are here for our off-campus course for the College of Idaho called Winter Wilderness Experience.

And we are here for the month of January.

And it's an interdisciplinary environmental studies course that incorporates public land policy, geography, creative writing, literature and backcountry skiing.

Kind of weave it all together and have a fully embodied experience here and get to know this place, the Sawtooth Valley, Sawtooth Mountains, White Cloud Mountains.

TEACHER: Anybody want to lead off?

Thank you, Ruby.

BAILEY CUNNINGHAM, STUDENT: We spend a couple hours in class every morning, and then we go out and try to apply that to what we see.

So when we're out skiing or out hiking, our professors will stop and say, what kind of tree is this?

It's actually experiencing physically what you're learning about.

MELINK: The College of Idaho has offered this intensive wilderness course during its special January term every other year since 2011.

KNICKERBOCKER: We're living with the students, we're eating meals with the students, we're out skiing with the students.

So we get to know each other really well.

ARLETTE KAGABA, STUDENT: We get to share each other's, like, experiences, express ourselves, play games together, cook together, sleep together, everything is like togetherness.

I've been in a boarding school in Rwanda, so it's nothing, like, new to me.

So I'm used to it.

I love this group because we're all, like, have the same goal.

Like we want to learn, we're growing together.

[CLASS CONVERSATION] MEGAN DIXON, COLLEGE OF IDAHO LECTURER IN ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES: Another goal of this program is to detach a bit from technology, not turn to your phone for entertainment, but turn to the people next to you and to conversation, like interaction over cards or darts or whatever it happens to be.

In environmental studies, we talk a lot about the ways in which modern life has made us less aware of seasonal patterns, of the sources of things that we depend on.

And we talk about paying more attention to natural processes - the shape of the land, the temperature, the sunlight, the wind, and then what's the hydrology doing?

It's also a place where I think you end up feeling closer to those processes.

You know, look out the window and you can see what's going on with the air and the light and the snow.

VALINDA WRIGHT, STUDENT: Every morning I wake up and I'm just in awe of, like, the scenery around me.

It's just, it's new every day, because sometimes you have the mountains, like, covered with clouds, sometimes you have fog, you have more snow, sometimes like the sun shining.

And it's just like it's a new experience every day, so it's really great.

[CONVERSATION ABOUT SKI CONDITIONS] KNICKERBOCKER: Stanley is famous for its cold temperatures and lots of snow.

We've had students from all over the country as well as beyond the U.S. We have a student this year from Rwanda.

We've had a student from Swaziland in the past, others who didn't grow up engaged in snow sports.

So it's been really fun to introduce students like that to this kind of environment.

KAGABA: It's cold, definitely cold.

But like seeing snow like this, like skiing through the powdery snow, it gets scary.

But like, it was a totally new experience that I enjoy.

[AVALANCHE BEACON BEEPING] KAGABA: When we climb up the mountain, you can see like the other mountains across.

You get to see how they're shaped, the Sawtooths.

They are so beautiful, like, how the glaciers formed them and you get to see, like, the mountains naked.

AAREN DANGOL, STUDENT: Skiing is also a new experience for me.

I've never done it before.

And the whole plan of coming up here was to get an experience of American wilderness.

I have been in places where it snows back in Nepal.

But it's like living in the place where it snows like every single day and having to wear warm clothes, being warm and you're always alert, active, when it's cold.

I kind of like it when it's cold.

But I have to say, during the winters, I miss summer.

KNICKERBOCKER: The theme of the course is wilderness, the idea of wilderness and how that has evolved over time.

So winter as a season is really the most wild in my mind in terms of being able to eke out an existence and survive and feel comfortable in.

Even though winter can be such a harsh time of year, especially up here, there's just so much beauty to behold as well and ways to enjoy it despite the cold.

DIXON: Nothing teaches like winter does.

It's incredible.

Like if you think about cold and how we respond to it, we mostly escape from it.

And there are very few situations where you are so confronted with the impact the environment has on you and you need to pay attention.

You need to protect yourself, you need to be careful.

Winter is just such an amazing teacher.

CUNNINGHAM: You get to see the backcountry and go backcountry skiing and see the beauty.

You get to experience it physically, but we also get the history and the academic side of it.

WRIGHT: This hill is a little bit steeper than I'm used to.

I'm pretty competitive.

I got frustrated, so I just needed to take a moment at the bottom of the hill and recharge.

Just be grateful to be out here.

Be grateful to have a healthy body that can get me up and down this mountain.

So just look for the bright side before I go back up.

This is my third day, so, it's, yeah, a lot to learn still.

One of the themes throughout this course is obviously wilderness, and like unknown, kind of scary.

And just being up here like you see how beautiful it is and you get to experience it firsthand - you get to touch it, you get to smell it, you get to like even taste, like right now, the snowflakes.

And you just get to be a part of it.

[MUSIC FADES] [SOUNDS OF NATURE] MELINK: It's known as "America's wildest classroom."

And getting to the Taylor Ranch Wilderness Research Station just may be the longest walk to school in the country.

For the dozen students in University of Idaho's Semester in the Wild, getting to class means a four-day, 30-mile hike into the Frank Church Wilderness.

A hike that includes rattlesnakes, bears, a sudden storm and some nasty blisters.

ALEXIS MELCHER, STUDENT: This hike just wasn't agreeing with my feet apparently.

It's a lot of hard work to get out here.

And it's definitely physically taxing to be out here and be on your feet all day.

But it's worth it, 100 percent.

Don't regret it at all.

IAN WOODRUFF, U OF I GRADUATE STUDENT AND PROGRAM ASSISTANT: It's hard to not have a good time when you're hiking down a beautiful canyon and seeing things for the first time.

We saw a black bear.

It jumped up at 15 yards, crossed the stream and then worked up the canyon wall over a bunch of deadfall and the whole class got to observe it.

We saw a bunch of Chinook salmon.

Super unique opportunity.

MARY VISGER, STUDENT: I envisioned it to be harder than it was.

I had some balancing issues, but my classmates and my TA's and my professors were always there to help me or take some of the load when it got too difficult for me.

For my first time backpacking, it was a really good experience.

MELINK: The hike along Big Creek also serves as a multiple-day ecology class.

INSTRUCTOR: Water started working on one particular spot.

BRIAN KENNEDY, U OF I PROFESSOR OF FISHERIES AND AQUATIC SCIENCE: We start upstream about 30 miles in Edwardsburg and talk a little bit about high-elevation lakes, beavers in systems.

We start talking about the Chinook salmon that the students see up there.

And then the four-day hike downstream allows them the opportunity to see a smallish river turn into a much larger river and all the physical and biological changes that occurred in that process.

They get an incredible learning experience.

You're spending three months with folks in very close living situations under some good times and some challenging times, and everybody goes through it.

It's remote.

And so everybody's being challenged in their own way and learning from it, growing from it.

MELINK: Yes, this is a semester-long adventure in the largest wilderness in the Lower 48.

But it's still work.

The students cook the food and clean the kitchen, and take classes in environmental history and writing, sustainability, wilderness management and outdoor leadership.

ASA LACKEY, STUDENT: I didn't think it would be this much schoolwork.

I'm going to have to make sure I keep on top of it and not get carried away hiking and other stuff like that.

It's still like 17 or 18 credits of school, so I got to make sure I get it done.

And that's kind of actually why I decided on University of Idaho, so I would be able to do this program.

Seems like a great opportunity to be able to get a full semester's worth of classes and enjoy the great outdoors.

INSTRUCTOR: Every time I pulled out, like, my emergency bivy, I wasn't planning on it.

HANNAH VALENTINE, STUDENT: I wanted to do the Semester in the Wild because I cannot sit another semester in the classrooms.

I wanted to be outdoors.

And when I heard about it at orientation, I knew that was for me.

MELCHER: When I found out U of I has this Semester in the Wild program, I was like, this school, this is where I want to go.

Here, I'm learning hands-on.

I'm applying what I'm being taught.

And then there's little tiny lessons along the way that would be valuable skills to have in a future career.

To do survey work, tracking animals or taking plant populations, and one thing I'm going to need to know how to do is camp and backpack in the wilderness area.

INSTRUCTOR: Look, one, two, three, four, behind it, then squeeze down on it.

STUDENT: Squeeze down?

INSTRUCTOR: Yep.

GARY THOMPSON, OUTDOOR LEADERSHIP INSTRUCTOR: For some of them, it's wanting a change of pace.

You know, many of us want to hit the reset button and, you know, try something new.

I wonder if, some of them, it's an opportunity to be bold and to be brave and to step into a setting that they might not normally, but because it's associated with the University of Idaho or the College of Natural Resources, it's familiar to them.

And so they think, well, it'll be OK.

So I think it's just hard enough.

MELINK: Thompson's outdoor leadership instruction includes skills like wilderness rescue and using bear spray.

To sharpen those skills, he assigns students to take the lead on a backpacking expedition, crossing the Middle Fork of the Salmon River into the rugged Bighorn Crags 12 miles away.

THOMPSON: What gear do we take with us?

How do we take care of each other?

How do we look at how we navigate across the landscape and give them the tools and opportunity to participate in that?

I love just getting to know the students.

You kind of find out who people are a little bit, like it's harder to be fake out here.

It's harder to put up a front.

It's easier to be yourself.

And so in some ways I think that opens great conversations.

JENNIFER LADINO, U OF I PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH: One of the things I teach in environmental writing classes is that to be a good writer, you have to apprehend the world like a writer.

And that means listening.

It means using all five senses to really get to know a place, to understand it, to feel what it's like to be there, to be fully present in the moment.

[SOUNDS OF NATURE] And there's really no place like a wilderness where, you know, that happens sort of automatically.

So what we've found in the writing classes is that students pick up skills so much faster.

MELINK: Jenn Ladino was among the original professors who launched Semester in the Wild in 2013.

She's one of five instructors who visit during the semester, flying in and out with the food and supplies from Cascade, 70 miles away.

LADINO: Time moves more slowly at Taylor.

We all feel a little bit less rushed, a little bit less pulled in multiple directions.

I use a lot of books and very little screen time when possible, so there's a slowness to teaching there that's, I think, really special.

[CONVERSATION] It's not uncommon to see bighorn sheep hanging around on the benches.

And that is phenomenal, right?

And it again, it forces you to be aware of your embodied presence in the landscape, your animality, the relationship that you have to these magical creatures.

And there's a kind of wonder there.

[MUSIC] Just seeing the scale of a place like it's so large and feeling so small and kind of infinitesimal in the universe, looking up and seeing the night sky, just so rich and vibrant and bright there.

It just feels humbling in the best possible way.

Especially for college-age students, that can be a healthy thing to sort of actively cultivate.

There's something about humility and recognizing one's relationship to the world around you that is really important and it just happens magically and kind of automatically at Taylor.

MELINK: The students have different goals for their time at Taylor.

Aaron Lousignont wants to be a fish and game officer.

AARON LOUSIGNONT, STUDENT: Looking through my spotting scope with my professors at sheep, bighorn sheep.

I think it's great.

It's real laid back.

Also I feel like I'm already taking in so much more than I would in a classroom.

I feel like I've been able to teach those guys some stuff and just show that hunters aren't always just out there to kill and stuff like that.

It's also for enjoyment and just to sit down, relax and enjoy the animals.

It's been nice to show some classmates that.

I'm enjoying it more.

It's bringing us all closer.

We got a big three months out here, so I think it's great.

MELINK: Mary Visger came to Taylor for adventure, and she found it on Big Creek.

VISGER: It was, like, awesome.

Like I think I hadn't caught like 15 fish before and like four in a row.

LOUSIGNONT: The first six casts, she caught five fish.

She went one, two, three, four.

Fifth cast, wasn't it, sixth cast nailed a nice, I think it was her first bull trout.

It was amazing.

I was like, well, at least somebody is doing something right.

VISGER: And it did make me feel connected to my family.

It reminded me of the good memories that I had with my dad, teaching me and my siblings.

[GUITAR MUSIC] MELINK: Seventy-eight students have completed the semester-long program in its 11 years.

But hundreds of researchers and students from various institutions spend time at Taylor Ranch in any given year.

Hydro and solar energy supply the lights and the Internet connection for the ranch buildings.

They also power the scientific monitors operated by NOAA, NASA and other agencies.

The 65-acre station has a mess hall and cabins for staff and faculty, but most students sleep in tents.

MELCHER: Last night it got pretty cold.

It's kind of nice being outside and getting the fresh air in, even if it is a little chilly at times.

VALENTINE: It was freezing.

I was - I had layers and layers.

I think I had four layers on last night.

I had my thickest pair of socks on and it was just not enough.

MELINK: Humans have been learning in the outdoors in this river canyon since time immemorial.

The Sheepeater band of the Shoshones lived, fished and hunted on these rivers and hills until 1879, when the U.S. cavalry battled to remove them.

Miners built the first cabin where Big Creek meets Pioneer Creek in 1890, but it was hunter and packer Cougar Dave Lewis who patented the 65-acre homestead in 1924.

Dorothy and Jess Taylor bought the ranch for outfitting in 1935, before selling to the University of Idaho in 1969.

Today it's Andrew Armstrong who keeps the place humming - and the waterpipes from freezing.

He also schools students in wilderness homesteading skills: packing with horses, smoking meat and clearing trails with crosscut saws.

ANDREW AMSTRONG, TAYLOR SUPERINTENDENT: So I live here year-round, this is my home.

I've got the cats here, I've got the dog here.

We have students in here now.

Mid-August to mid-November, it's quite busy actually.

In the winter the only person I see is Walt, who is the pilot for actually the last air mail route in the Lower 48.

I love the winter here.

Kind of just me and the animals.

It's really awesome to see like the elk and the deer and the sheep kind of all grazing together.

We get a lot of wolves coming through here.

I have a lot of respect for wolves, and I just try to like establish that this is my space.

Usually this time of year, there's a bunch of bears that are just kind of living on the ranch.

Last year we had like a mother and a cub that just basically lived here, living in the apple trees.

I don't name the bears, but, you know, students, if they want to name the bears, you know, they can do whatever they want.

Their names were Marge and Gerald.

And they were pretty cute.

MELINK: Of the many benefits of spending a full semester in the wild, the most meaningful may be the simplest: A chance to reflect and connect in a way that just doesn't happen in the conventional college setting.

THOMPSON: I feel like there's so much certainty in the world.

If we have a question we ask Google, if we're lost, we use a map.

If we want an answer, if somebody is late, we text somebody.

There's just all this instant gratification for knowledge and outcomes.

And I feel like out here, that's not part of the deal.

And so I like seeing people become more confident and comfortable and managing uncertainty.

This place where we are, this is the ultimate instructor.

[MUSIC FADES] [MUSIC] MELINK: Learning in the outdoors doesn't end with graduation.

Idaho hunters, anglers, hikers, foragers and artisans spend lifetimes learning from Mother Nature.

But for adults who want a more formal instruction, Idaho's Department of Fish and Game may have exactly what you're looking for.

KEVIN DREWS, MASTER NATURALIST: You're learning constantly and the program teaches you biology, teaches you flowers, teaches you mycology.

I mean, you go through everything.

SARA FOCHT, WILDLIFE EDUCATOR, IDAHO DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME: The Idaho Master Naturalist program started here in Idaho in 2008.

It's education for adults, and a volunteer component.

They go through 40 hours of education provided to them by their local chapter, and that education can be lectures, it can be field trips, it can be workshops, all sorts of different ways that education comes to them.

And then they volunteer 40 hours of conservation service.

So it could be citizen science, it can be educating others, it could be habitat improvement, all sorts of different volunteer opportunities.

ERIC KEREN, MASTER NATURALIST: I come from a hunting, fishing, camping, shooting background and raising two little boys.

And for me it was always about what can I do to learn more about my own natural environment so I could share that knowledge with my kids.

It makes you a better outdoors person, a better conservationist, and just a better kind of steward for the land and kind of a guide for Idaho with all the people that are coming here.

DYLON STARRY, PROGRAM MANAGER, CANYON COUNTY PARKS DEPARTMENT: I think people want to connect with nature and they want to learn the stuff that they maybe didn't get to learn about in school.

And so with Master Naturalist, it's a great way to get a little information and kind of find out what you're more interested in.

MELINK: Dylon Starry is one of about 1,500 Idaho master naturalists.

And as program manager for Canyon County Parks, he's perfectly positioned to instruct budding master naturalists.

STARRY: Today at Celebration Park, we talked about winter desert ecology.

And then, later, we're talking about how the prehistoric humans would have gotten through winter and how they made do with the environment that they have.

You can study this and learn this right here where you live.

They don't have to come far to learn about 10,000 years of human population.

And that's our opportunity to help create good stewards of the land and the cultural resources.

ROBYN FOUST, MASTER NATURALIST APPLICANT: So you can study something in a book and you could imagine it or think about it, but you really don't understand it and feel it until you're here in the environment.

So to see these cliffs over here, you see the majesty of nature around you.

LORA STRANGE, KUNA HIGH NATURAL SCIENCE TEACHER, MASTER NATURALIST: I call outdoor education an ability to engage all of our senses and our learning.

So we're basically firing up all the pathways of our brain, engaging our curiosity.

And that in itself helps us remember a lot more than like if you just open a book or are reading about something online.

You're really immersed in your topic.

MELINK: Lora Strange is a master naturalist and an outdoor natural science teacher at Kuna High School.

She cites research that shows outdoor education is not just fun and healthy, it can spark a love of learning.

It can engage different kinds of student intelligences, boost focus and performance, even enhance behavioral and emotional development.

And it can build a students' sense of place, and inspire civic and environmental responsibility.

STRANGE: The first thing we need to do is explore.

And then through this exploration, we have discovery.

Through discovery, we have learning.

Learning creates connection to where we are.

Then that causes us to care and eventually that creates stewards and people who want to protect what we have.

And so I think that's basically outdoor education in a nutshell.

FOCHT: Today in the class, we could have talked about those insects.

We could have cut out pictures of those insects.

We could have ID'd those insects on paper, but they, they held them in their hands, like they felt them moving across their hands and their skin.

And they'd never done that before.

And I guarantee you they will remember that.

They may not remember the names.

They may not know what species it was, but they're going to know that that river is full of fish food.

And that wouldn't have happened with paper, inside.

MELINK: Something else happens in the outdoors: personal connections.

And that's turned out to be as important in the master naturalist program as learning and volunteering.

FOCHT: People are making friends and they're going out to lunch and coffee and they're going hiking together.

And they go camping together.

They go fishing together.

And they didn't know each other before.

I knew in theory that the camaraderie was important and that the social aspects of that program for adults was important, just because everybody told me that.

But I saw it firsthand.

KEREN: I work in retail management.

I don't normally get to play outdoors and teach it to others.

You learn something that you're passionate about anyway.

You get better at it and it's just a lot of fun to be outside and share the experience with others.

[CHILDREN TALKING] MELINK: Whether we're preschoolers or college students or retirees, nature has something to teach us all.

Independence and self-confidence.

Active bodies and active minds.

A connection to place, and a passion for protecting it.

And maybe even a dose of hopefulness.

DIXON: What's been fulfilling is that the environment or the landscape or the experience does some of the teaching work for us.

So you can be trying to explain something all day in words, but they'll go outside or help a peer or do something, and that's really what completes the teaching.

We're all here learning together, helping each other and letting the landscape and the climate teach us.

[MUSIC] ANNOUNCER: Funding for Outdoor Idaho is made possible by the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation committed to fulfilling the Moore and Bettis Family Legacy of building the great state of Idaho, by the Friends of Idaho Public Television, by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; and by the Idaho Public Television Endowment.

To find more information about these shows visit us at Idahoptv.org