Field Trips

Fifteen Harford County property owners hiked two hours through the woods near Broad Creek yesterday, identifying trees and taking note of the changing topography as they headed toward a valley and a rare find: a 30-acre stand of hemlock trees. There, they came upon the second-largest hemlock in the state. "It doesn't look very big, until you go down and stand next to it," said Mike Huneke, a forester from the state Department of Natural Resources, of the 400-year-old, 120-foot-tall tree.

ONE AFTERNOON just before Christmas, Michelle Antkowiak took an archaeological field trip to the state's earliest settlement, believed to have been established about 900 along what is known as the St. Mary's River in Southern Maryland. Michelle, 9, didn't venture beyond a computer lab at her school, Harford Hills Elementary in Baltimore County. Her fingers tripped easily across the keyboard as she studied the Yaocomaco Indian tribe. "This is funner than a book," said Michelle of the exercise.

IF YOU'VE ever wondered how to tell the difference between Setaria glauca and Setaria viridis, then you might want to join Mac Plant and Roger Redden on one of their Saturday morning botany field trips. Bring a magnifying glass because you'll have to count the tiny bristles beneath the florets in order to distinguish yellow bristle grass from the green bristle species. You'll also need a notebook in which to jot down these botanical characteristics, and not just the specimens' common names but their Latin ones, too. Professor Plant and Professor Redden may not be academics, but they'll want you to remember both when you go out with them again.

Paul Hines adjusted his white sun hat and continued explaining the bison life cycle to 25 children ranging from infants in strollers to young teens. A few mothers made shushing noises, others prompted their children to raise hands and ask questions. Hines, owner of Cedarvale bison farm in Churchville, soldiered on. Although Harford County schools had let out for the summer, the visit to the bison farm was a school-year custom, the field trip -with a slight twist. For most of the pupils listening to Hines, summer does not mean vacation, it means more of the usual: homeschooling.

In an ordinary school year, we would not be calling your attention to the fact that the annual Westowne Elementary School Field Day took place as scheduled yesterday. We would not be reporting the successful completion, under murky but merciful skies, of the potato race, the tug-of-war and the cotton ball relay. We wouldn't have looked twice at the sight of hundreds of children, none wearing ponchos, romping across a freshly mowed Catonsville playground on a day when the forecast had called for rain.

The first Baltimore class in a new job training program graduates today -- eight novice environmentalists who now can tell you the meaning of "phytoremediation" in a heartbeat. (For the record: It means the use of plants to clean up contaminated soil or groundwater.) The free, eight-week pilot program taught at Civic Works, a nonprofit organization based in Clifton Park, used field trips, classroom studies and practical demonstrations to train the students in techniques for reclaiming idle, contaminated industrial sites known as brownfields.

Baltimore County Superintendent Joe A. Hairston has relaxed a ban on field trips, allowing all school-sponsored travel within the United States, while continuing to ban trips outside the country. The superintendent's decision Friday occurred after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security lowered the nation's alert status from orange to yellow. "We're beginning to relax as the country relaxes," Hairston said. Twenty planned trips to New York, Philadelphia, Washington and other destinations can now go forward.

Baltimore County Superintendent Joe A. Hairston's recent decision to cancel out-of-state field trips because of the war with Iraq has infuriated many parents, including some who have decided to privately send their children on a trip to England anyway. Complaints to school officials prompted modification of the ban yesterday to allow trips to sites in neighboring states, but not to Philadelphia or Washington. Last week, Hairston sent parents a letter notifying them that all out-of-state and foreign trips were canceled indefinitely for safety reasons.

A field trip to Howard County schools' professional development center might sound dull, but last week 150 elementary school children couldn't hide their enthusiasm. The center in Columbia was decorated with balloons. Rooms were renamed after favorite authors such as J.K. Rowling and A.A. Milne, transforming the building into a conference for beginning authors. The conference was part of the Young Writers' Institute, a yearlong program that is included in some elementary schools' Gifted and Talented (GT)