The Outdoor Studies Program here at Lake City has been a really popular option for students to take during their junior year for the last five years. From going to new places, learning in new, exciting ways, and getting to know your fellow peers better, OSP offers a lot of learning opportunities for everyone. Here are 10 reasons why all underclassmen should take OSP their junior year.

1. You’ll meet new people and make new friends

OSP is a great way to make new and friends and meet new people that you would’ve never met before. With all the field trips that OSP takes, you’re always going to be doing new activities with new groups of people. You won’t just meet new people out on field trips, but you’ll also meet them in the classroom. Because OSP is scheduled so you have all your classes in one day, you will most likely be spending a full day with all the same people in all of your classes. That’s a good way to meet these people and become friends with them.  

2. You get to explore new places and learn about the history of places around Coeur d ’Alene

The field trips you take in OSP will bring you to places outside that you may not have ever gone before. You get the chance to explore these places and learn the history about that place as well. You’ll learn about the history of local places around Coeur d’Alene that you can enjoy for years to come.

3. You get to help improve the environment around you

While you’re in OSP you’ll learn about problems in our environment locally that you can actually do something about. You’ll learn material about local problems like water quality and then go out on field trips and learn how to actively help out the environment and do it. You’ll get to work with your friends and fellow classmates and teachers to make a difference in the local environment.

4. It’s a new experience (It’s not like any other school program)

OSP at Lake City is unlike any other school program, especially since it is not funded by the Coeur d’Alene school district we are very lucky to have it. Instead of learning about all these subjects in a regular classroom, OSP gets you out in the environment and teaches you how to learn from nature and how to appreciate it and give back to it.

5. Nature becomes your classroom

What’s better than learning from the world around you? Nothing. In OSP nature becomes your classroom and you’ll be learning from the environment around you. You’ll learn how the environment in Coeur d’Alene works and how it reacts to variables around it like chemical inputs, different nutrients, and human beings.  

6. You get to learn from teachers who are passionate about what they teach

Learning can be fun when you’re being taught by someone who is passionate about what they are teaching.  In OSP, all of the teachers are very passionate about what they teach, which makes the learning aspect 10x better.  

7. Everyone who has done OSP in the past has loved it and has highly recommended it

The OSP program here at Lake City has been extremely popular over the years. Handfuls of students have gone through the program and recommend that underclassmen take it.  Junior Sara Kaitz said “I had also heard amazing things about it from older friends so it seemed like a really good option for me.”

8. You learn about the world we live in while getting a good education at the same time

The OSP program gives you a bunch of options and opportunities to learn about the environment around you but at the same time you are getting a good education. You are also learning more stuff from nature like life lessons and how to appreciate the world around you. OSP is a good mix of educational information and life experience learning.    

9. You get to do new, exciting outdoor activities

On each field trip you take in OSP, you’ll be participating in a new outdoor activity that you might not have done before. That aspect of OSP makes it fun and exciting because you get to learn a new skill every time. You could do anything from helping clean the environment to learning how to test water quality to hiking. It’s always new!

10. It’s fun!

Over all the OSP program here at Lake City is just plain fun! You’re getting out of school to go on fun field trips with fun people, while you’re still learning. You’ll make new memories and learn new exciting things while exploring nature instead of sitting in boring old classrooms so definitely consider taking OSP your Junior year!