By Katie Berglund
Ellis Middle School Principal

For the past five years, Ellis Middle School seventh-graders have had the incredible opportunity to attend a three-day, two-night field trip to Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center in Lanesboro, Minn.

As students prepare for the trip in their classes at Ellis, they anticipate the “great” time they have heard about from their older siblings, or their classmates who have gone before them. Of course the anticipation of trip is exciting, but nothing like when they stand atop the platform 30 feet in the air at the end of the Tree-Tops high ropes course fearfully anticipating the exhilaration they are about to experience on the zip line.

Each of the 280 students and 60 adults who attended the trip this year had the opportunity to not only conquer their fears and feel accomplishment through their own strength, but also from the encouragement and dedication of their ground-partner. While at Eagle Bluff the students work with, learn from, and live with students they may not traditionally socialize with in school.

In addition to the high ropes course, students engage in a diverse experience of classes. Archery and rock wall climbing are the only indoor activities that take place during this winter field-trip. Students learn about the Oneota, the Native Americans who were native to the Lanesboro area, by learning and playing the games they played and preparing the food they ate over a fire they start.

In the Pioneer Life course they learn about living off the land. And while the winter weather has not been particularly treacherous this year, students do have a course in winter survival where they learn how they could survive with limited supplies in the outdoors and a course about animal hibernation and food supply in a course called The Big Freeze.

Students’ evenings are filled with educational programs about caves and raptors put on by the Eagle Bluff naturalists and a campfire in the deep dark night topped off by a completely silent night hike where they learn about stars and science as they conduct an experiment with a wintergreen lifesavers that lights up their mouth.

While at Eagle Bluff there is a strong focus on conservation and students enter into two challenges where they can be recognized for their environmentally friendly habits. The Eagle Eye Award was awarded to both groups this year for their attention to turning off lights and correctly recycling a plethora of items.

The Golden Plate Award was also awarded to both groups because both groups kept their trip total of food waste to under 6.5 pounds. “Take what you want, but eat what you take,” is the mantra they learn while eating the really good food the kitchen staff prepares for them. With all of this outdoor physical activity, kids are in bed and lights out by 10 p.m.

The Eagle Bluff trip has been financially made possible for the past five years because of generous, dedicated donations. Of the about $135 per student cost to attend, students have only needed to fund $20 to cover transportation costs. The funding streams that have funded the majority of the trip have come to an end, and now the Ellis PTC is working with school administration to try to secure dedicated funding streams for the next three years in hopes that this truly remarkable experience will continue to be a tradition for the Ellis Middle School seventh-graders.