Environmental Living Program (ELP)
The ELP provides hands-on learning which allows students to explore the interaction between people and their environment. While spending time on a breathtaking and remote historic coastal site, students learn about the history and rich cultures of the peoples that have been present at Metini / Fort Ross, focusing on pre-contact, ‘Russian era’ and today. Through performing tasks that were a part of daily life at Metini / Fort Ross - and doing activities designed to teach students about some of the cultural craftwork practiced among the different peoples of Metini / Fort Ross - students gain a better understanding of a unique chapter in California history, and their relationship to it.
Some of these tasks and activities include cooking meals in an outdoor kitchen, fishing and ‘hunting’ for food, gardening, gathering, basket weaving, mapping, making candles, collecting and stacking firewood, processing natural materials that have been gathered according to season, trading, practicing artisanal crafts, and dancing, During an overnight Fort Ross ELP, students, parents, and teachers sleep inside the historic fort compound buildings.