STEM club returns to Mount St. Helens

Over Memorial Day weekend, the LRHS Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) club took a trip across the state to explore Mount St. Helens and make connections between classroom concepts and the real world.

Similarly to prior years, the trip consisted of interpretive hikes and visitations to Clear Lake Falls Vista, Woods Creek Natural Area, Iron Creek, Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument Main Visitor Center, Weyerhaeuser Forestry Center, Johnston Ridge Observatory, Coldwater Lake, Mount St. Helens Hummocks, and Aldrich Berry Farm and Nursery. A side trip was also taken to the Grove of the Patriarchs in Mt. Rainier National Park.

Six students attended the trip, including foreign exchange students Miguel Saéz and Samuele Bortolato. Each student found something they specifically found interesting.

Senior Hawk Busayok, on his last STEM club field trip, explained, “One of the most interesting things on the trip that I learned was about old growth forests and just how big the trees in them grow.”

He added about the discussion that took place at the Grove of the Patriarchs, “It was all so interesting to see how nursing trees work in old forests.”

“I enjoyed the actual monument,” began Emily Rosen, “because we could see the mountain closer and there were interesting movies about the evolution of nature after the eruption.”

For the foreign exchange students especially, the trip provided the opportunity to experience firsthand a region that they previously had only read about.

“My teacher told us about Mount St. Helens in middle school and I wanted to see the place with my eyes,” Bortolato said.

He continued, “I thought that it was really interesting, the fact that you can still see everything, you can tell which part of the eruption did what.”

Three of the six participants on the trip have finished their time at LRHS and with that, have gone on their last STEM club field trip.

A STEM club member since its inaugural year in 2014, Busayok reflected, “STEM has helped me grow as a student by showing me all of the careers and fields I could go into and giving me some basic knowledge in them.”

In his first and last year in STEM club, Bortolato enjoyed the field trips and the annual Bi-County STEM Challenge the most: “It was fun,” he noted.

STEM Club Advisor Jason Aldrich began taking advanced students to Mount St. Helens in approximately 1999, and after skipping a few years in between, the recent trip was his 15th time attending the volcanic monument with students.

When asked why he keeps coming back to the same field trip, he explained, “Why do I keep doing the same assignments every year? Because it’s effective and it’s entertaining.”

“It’s part of my curriculum,” he added, “so it’s worth repeating.”

The field trip opens the discussion to what activities STEM club will participate in next year. Aldrich says that he would like to see more field trips.

“I’d like to go to Grand Coulee Dam and go back to Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility, as Advanced Placement Environmental Science will be offered next year,” Aldrich explained.

Getting the input of freshmen looking to join STEM club will also be an important part of the plan for next year.

In the discussion of recruiting new members to take his place, Busayok said, “I would encourage freshmen to join STEM club because it’s something that will lead them to find a career they love. Also, STEM fields are the fastest growing careers in the world.”

“And if that doesn’t make them want to join,” he concluded, “they get to go on lot of field trips and hang out with fun people.”