Henkle students "get away" for learning

Sometimes it’s satisfying to just get away. Thanks to the organizational and creative energies of our teachers, as well as important support from governmental agencies and community groups, Henkle students are able to take their learning on the road from time to time. Those opportunities particularly occur in the arts, science, and athletics.

Even as this article is posted, this very week the senior band will be taking a trip to Clark College. Later this month, art students will take a trip to the Portland Art Museum to observe a special printmaking exhibit. The junior band will also have its own trip later this year, and in February, jazz band students are hoping to go to the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival at the University of Idaho.

A university campus has been the site for two trips different athletics teams have taken during this calendar year, one in the spring of 2011 and the other this past fall. Most recently, the volleyball teams toured the campus of Portland State University before watching the Vikings defeat Northern Arizona, 25-15, 26-24, 18-25, 25-16.

“Just walking around campus was great,” recalled coach Lori Owen. “The players were so enthusiastic. ‘What’s this building?’ ‘What’s this building?’

“They (Portland State) were so nice to us,” said Mrs. Owen. “They walked us to our seats. They parked us right in front of the gym. They gave us posters and pom-poms.” The Grizzly volleyballers were understandably impressed. Several said to Mrs. Owen, “Coach, we need to practice some more!”

In the spring, Mrs. Owen and the track coaches brought the HMS track and field team to watch one of the premier track and field programs in the nation, the University of Oregon Ducks. As did the girls this fall, the tracksters toured the U of O campus, gaining motivation for getting to college as well as inspiration from watching tremendous performances.

Later this school year, fifth and sixth graders will take a trip to the Portland Art Museum. All of these trips are funded by Performing Arts Booster Club or the Henkle Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO).

Also this past fall, all eighth graders took part in water sampling work on the White Salmon River below the now “decommissioned” Condit Dam. A smaller group of eighth graders made an additional trip, performing more research and preparing a presentation of their findings. What was even more special was their audience—it included Jane Goodall, the famous scientist. This experiences emerged from collaborative planning by teacher Michael Hannigan and Mrs. Cheri Anderson and Mrs. Jennifer Rowlan of the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife for water quality work, Valerie Stephenson of the Columbia Gorge Ecology Institute who arranged our meeting with Jane Goodall, and Maureen Phelan of Mid-Columbia Fisheries for her wonderful presentation on the history and planned removal of Condit Dam. Her work served as a foundation for our students presentation.

Once again, the presentation trip by the select group of eighth graders featured a tour of a college campus, this time Willamette University.

“It was an amazing experience to present to such a revered scientist,” said Mr. Hannigan of their time with Ms. Goodall. “She gave our students her undivided attention for five minutes and was impressed with their work. The entire day was just great. We rode down with students from Hood River who had done similar research, and the kids really enjoyed each other’s company.”