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SEASHORE: National Park Service Ranger John Eleby explained to West Marin middle school students how to tie some knots and set up an anchor system for use in rescue operations last week at the Clem Miller Education Center. The four-day field trip was part of the Seashore Youth Ambassadors Project.  David Briggs

During a three-day field trip last week for West Marin School’s middle schoolers, seashore ranger John Eleby taught 41 students how to drive stakes into the ground and later asked what they should bring on long hikes. (“Chocolate!” one kid cried out.) The lesson in the great outdoors was funded by a National Park Foundation grant to the Point Reyes National Seashore Association’s Youth Ambassador’s program, said P.R.N.S.A. development director Donna Faure. The program is a boon for the kids, who have seen cuts to field trips during the school’s budget crisis. After Mr. Eleby’s lesson, Meghan Walla-Murphy, an ecological consultant and writer, talked about the animal world and tracking. She told them to find a “sit spot” in the field and observe nature. A dog barked in the distance; a plane roared overhead; flies buzzed by; disobedient students hooted and hollered as they gleefully climbed trees; ravens cawed as they flew, their shadows momentary tracks on the grass. As the kids built “tracking boxes,” many hoped to later find footprints from more dangerous animals than they saw during their 10-minute sit. “If we’re lucky, we’ll get a mountain lion,” said Izabella, an eighth grader.