[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?

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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] [MUSIC] 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.

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.

[MUSIC] 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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, 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.

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.

MEGAN DIXON, COLLEGE OF IDAHO LECTURER IN ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES: 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

[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.

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.

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: 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] [CHILDREN TALKING] MELINK: Whether we're preschoolers or college 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