When Larry Hiday, Columbia Adventist Academy (CAA) biology and chemistry teacher, applied for the North Pacific Union Conference Don Keele Excellence in Education Award this year, he was tempted to use the award to further his personal education. Momentarily, he considered a visit to an exotic biological destination like the Galapagos Islands or Patagonia, a safari in Kenya, or a class in ornithology from Cornell University. Any of these would have fueled his enthusiasm for sharing science with his classes, eventually providing benefits back to students.
But Hiday wished to go beyond this. He wrote the award application so that it could go directly to students as a unique, hands-on learning opportunity. With the award committee's green light, Hiday will conduct a two-week backpacking science class in which CAA will "move" its campus to the Cascade and Olympic mountains.
The class will focus on geology, research methods, biology and photography. No stranger to field schools, Hiday has conducted dozens in locations like the Gulf Coast, the Sierra and the Pacific Coast. He is, however, new to geology, so he will be calling on the expertise of friends and former students and teaming with the Geoscience Research Institute to make this class in the mountains a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
"Introducing students to those areas of God's creative power will be more rewarding in its potential impact and 'ripple effect' than my going to Africa on a safari," says Hiday.
The instructors for the CAA field school will include Hiday, Jamey Cooper, Allen Cooper and Randy Givens.
Allen Cooper will provide part of the instruction for the Columbia Adventist Academy science field school due to the NPUC Don Keele Award.
Randy Givens Randy Givens will provide part of the instruction for the Columbia Adventist Academy science field school.
Larry Hiday, Columbia Adventist Academy teacher, includes photography instruction as part of his off-campus science course this summer.
Jamey Cooper will provide part of the instruction for the Columbia Adventist Academy science field school.
