Each spring our 5th grade spends four nights at the Hancock Field Station, a camp run by OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry). Hancock is near Fossil, Oregon. Fossil is a good name because there are fossils to be found just about everywhere. It is in the high desert country of Eastern Oregon.

Please click the links to the left to see photos and videos of our experiences this year.

At Camp Hancock we study the environment. It is much drier than back at school in Portland. Because the climate is so different, and because so many fossils are to be found in the area, Hancock is a very interesting place to do science. Each day we do a five hour field study. Everyone does these studies:

- Ecology Study: We look at the plants and animals found in the area, and look to see how they adapt to the high desert conditions.

- Geology-Paleontology Study: The area has three main land layers: the Clarno formation - land that is about 35-50 million years old comprised of lahars, or mud flows. Today many fossils of plants and animals are found mixed in this layer. The rock has much debris in it. Above the Clarno formation is the John Day formation about 20-40 million years old, land created by ash flows and ash deposits. Above that are remains of the Columbia River Basalt formation, about 12-15 million years old, created when volcanos created huge lava flows that traveled across Oregon all the way to the ocean. You can still see these flows at the coast - they formed the capes, such as Cape Lookout.

- Studies of our choice include an aquatics study of Pine Creek, visiting petroglyphs, climbing to and exploring the high country, and digging for fossils in Fossil, Oregon.

We also have afternoon interest groups: Fossils; Skulls, Skin and Bones; Lapidary; and Climbing Wall. In the evening we have a birds of prey presentation, a predator-prey game, and eco-jeopardy, a great game where we show what we learned.

Hancock Field Station is located in the Clarno Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. It is located in the high desert of Eastern Oregon off Highway 218 between Fossil and Antelope. High deserts refer to deserts, usually at relatively high elevations, located in the rain shadow of mountain ranges. Marine air coming onto the land is forced to rise over mountains, cooling and giving off most of their moisture as they rise. Once the air passes the mountain peaks little mosture is left, so the land it enters is a rain shadow desert. Since some moisture is left to fall as precipitation such lands are often called semiarid deserts. At Hancock Field Station annual rainfall is in the order of 8-10". The elevation is about 1500'. Therefore the station is located in a high desert, semiarid desert, rain shadow desert.