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By Riley Jones
Outdoor Lab is a weeklong, overnight mountainous program for sixth graders in Jefferson County to gain hands-on experience, bond with peers and learn about the special Colorado wilderness around them.
Founded in 1957, the program hosts a different school from the county each week during the school year. Around 5,000 children per year participate, with about 40 interns and 1,000 high school leaders volunteering per season. Kids and teachers alike eat, sleep, and partake in a unique outdoor education to learn subjects like the water cycle, earth cycle, geology, archery, hydrosphere, and biosphere.
Charles Wiebeck, who was both a high school leader and an intern at Outdoor Lab, found that outdoor education was his calling through this adventure and is now working as a park ranger. Weibeck speaks on his experience, the connection to nature and others, and the Wild West.
Our conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Q: What is the most memorable part of your experience?
WEIBECK: Having a professional job, I’d say. What it feels like to work directly with a management instead of that just being like, a concept. You know, working directly with adults who have been doing this forever, they give you a lot of good advice. How to carry yourself in the real world is another big thing. And also talking about your problems with people you trust is very important.
Q: Right now, Outdoor Lab is only present in Jefferson County with two locations. Is this something you could see expanding?
WEIBECK: Outdoor classrooms are becoming a bigger thing nationwide. I think places that can afford it are gonna be picking up more and more outdoor classroom concepts. Really rural places don’t need it. So metropolitan areas for sure. But Jefferson County bought the land from that farming family, and Denver did a similar thing. So, first of all, you would have to buy the land. Then comes the contracts, union agreements, teacher and admin wages to think about.
Q: Which was your favorite role – student, high school leader, or intern?
WEIBECK: Definitely intern, you get some really great bonding experiences out of it. It’s kind of like the suffering of having to teach children and put them all to bed and wake them up builds a common form. Have you heard the term laughing at the gallows? It’s something like that. You really have to be there to know what it’s like, because the first few weeks you get kids from local areas like Evergreen, then down the mountain to the front range and Eastern Jefferson County. Some kids didn’t have water bottles, you know? Water bottles. There’s a disparity… as the season goes on, it’s mentally taxing because you are supposed to be a mini counselor to these kids. And some of the kids come from homes where there’s like nine people living in a two-bedroom house, kids that have been sexually abused, kids that are already smoking pot in sixth grade. There were girls that couldn’t come because they were pregnant. Jefferson County is definitely an interesting mix.
Q: Did you see a difference in students before and after this experience?
WEIBECK: Sometimes it’s a normal week and sometimes it’s not. I had some boys once that were apparently the worst the school had to offer, and out of nowhere these guys were threatening violence to each other. We were told there was gang violence at this school. These boys had a scuffle, and I took five boys in my bunk house. And I laid my foot down, like, this is a no-nonsense bunk house. And it was the easiest bunk house I’ve ever had. The boys were so nice, all they did was play cards, and I played cards with them. When a kid leaves, another one comes up. You’re there to educate and make memories.
