Overnight at Pinnacles National Park

Last week, a small bunch of OS33 spent a couple days away from campus, camping and hiking through Pinnacles National Park with Alex Keilty, our Science instructor, and Megan Broughton, our Residential Life Advisor. Organized by Sarah S and Grace Ann P, the trip was originally planned for Yosemite but when temperatures there rapidly plummeted in the days leading up to our departure, we quickly changed course for Pinnacles. It could not have been a more incredible place to explore together; whether sleeping under the Milky Way, summiting peaks, or descending into the cold caves. 

About three hours south of Oxbow, Pinnacles is an otherworldy ancient volcanic field home to towering spires of rock, talus caves, condors, raccoons (the group is now very adept at driving them away), deer, and flocks wild turkey (bless their poor, bizarre souls). With over 30 miles of trails, we certainly had our pick of beauty and ended up hiking for about 15 miles through the chaparral and spires on Friday after a chilly night at the campgrounds with a breathtakingly clear view of the stars. 

We're hoping to integrate similar trips into future semesters with help from student and faculty volunteers (and cooperative weather!).

All photos by Grace Ann P and Ellie J:

Adventuring

This past Wednesday, the school arranged a field trip to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco for students to enjoy and learn through their informative exhibits and shows! First, students were taken to the planetarium show, Habitat Earth, which educated the audience on the Earth's varying ecosystems and how they affect all of the living organisms inhabiting them. Students were then able to explore the museum, whether it was walking through the immersive aquarium, observing birds, butterflies, and other tropical species in the four-story rainforest dome, or experiencing San Francisco's two largest earthquakes in a simulation room. The Oxbow faculty also arranged for a special viewing of scientific field journals collected by the museum. Museum representatives Amelia and Yolanda explained the importance of keeping an accurate journal with sketches, measurements, and written notes, explaining that details are vital to the accuracy of research. Because all Oxbow students are required to keep a journal with documentation of our art and research processes, this viewing gave students new ideas on other ways to record our thoughts and observations. After boarding the bus to head back to Oxbow, students were surprised with a trip to the Golden Gate Bridge! A tradition at The Oxbow School, students walked across the bright red bridge, admiring the views of the San Francisco Bay and enjoying the chilly weather. Overall, the field trip was a great transition into the start of final projects that will be commencing in the next few weeks!

- Celia G

photos by Devon R and Celia G

Project X Sneak Peeks

Though the content of Project X is kept underwraps until the grand unveiling for each group of students, we can still share sneak peeks of everyone's work! This is one of my favorite posts to compose each semester - it's great to see just the essences of everyone's piece and how they hold their own to create an alternate show of distilled work. 

These masterful detail photos were taken by Brenna M and Yoon J.