Stretching their legs outdoors

A group of 90 sixth-graders from Adams Elementary School in Mesa Verde became the first Newport-Mesa students to do a wilderness program at the Outdoor Education Center in Orange Tuesday.

The center, which recently opened, is the pet project of Corona del Mar volunteer and former Boy Scout Mike Harrison, who has been working for years to turn the 210 acres of sunny hills once owned by the Irvine Co. into a place for kids to learn while enjoying nature.

Nature hikes through a few different types of ecosystems from lush vegetation surrounding a stream to a grassy oak woodland area were the day’s main activities.

Adams Principal Candy Cloud, who accompanied the kids on the three- to four-mile hike, said that they saw roadrunner tracks and a snake, and got to eat from edible plants along the trail (in addition, of course, to a sack lunch the kids also ate on the trail).

“On the trail the kids were very engaged. I was very impressed that the instructor did not tell as much as asking questions,” Cloud said.

Sean Noonan, the center’s lead naturalist, said that the outdoor program teaches kids about subjects contained in the state’s curriculum while allowing them to get some exercise and see the things they’re studying.

Center instructors came out to Adams late last week to give the students a one-hour briefing and build anticipation for the trip.

Once the kids get on the trails, though, it’s a whole different atmosphere, Noonan said.

“A lot of the boundaries that you would often see in a classroom between different cliques and age groups — by the end of an all-day hike people who weren’t talking before or interacting are now good friends,” Noonan said.

The students from Adams only did a one-day program but the center has bunk houses, a swimming pool, an archery range and a zip line across a gorge that are designed for the housing and entertainment of groups who want to stay for multiple days.

Harrison hopes to see other Newport-Mesa schools come and perhaps do more extensive programs in the future.