“Look! A car!”

That’s what 8-year-old Will Mortimer said while holding up a broken, red tail light that somehow made its way among the leaves, berries, trees and twigs. “I just saw this red, shiny thing, so I picked it up. I’m keeping it!”

OK, so that wasn’t on the list for the scavenger hunt Roosevelt Elementary School students took part in Wednesday in Petrifying Springs Park near the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.

But students said it was great to get out and experience nature first-hand.

“This is a lot funner than staying in the classroom,” said Ruidi Xu, 9.

What started out as a chance for students to hike the trails around the university turned into a partnership with Parkside when the college offered to send a geosciences professor and a few students to help the youngsters learn about the soil and plants around them.

“Kids today don’t have an understanding of nature because they’re so engrossed in technology,” said Parkside student Laura Schulz, 21. “We want to show them things that make it fun to be a kid.”

The plan was to teach them about dirt and sand to find out how it retains water and what type of plant life it can sustain — and maybe even what it tastes like.

“I hope I can get them to try it!” Schulz smiled. “Sometimes you have to eat the dirt to figure out the grit and texture. Mostly we just want to get them so they can be kids and get outside.”

Once they arrived, the students wasted no time in fanning out, taking photos and hugging trees — really, hugging trees.

One of the scavenger hunt items was to find a tree you couldn’t get your arms around, not to mention moss, different leaves, a river stream and signs of an animal.

No telling what type of animal left the tail light in the woods for Mortimer to find.

“Kids never get the chance to get out in nature, but we want to show them that this is their planet to take care of,” said Roosevelt teacher Natalie Chulew.

Connor Feiver, 8, hit the ground on his hands and knees, looking for a compound leaf to scratch off his list.

“Plus I want to learn survival skills,” he added.

As the students wound around a path near a stream of water from the Pike River, Parkside geoscience professor Joe Krieg pointed out a gray, wooden building.

“Do you know what this is?” he asked.

“When you gotta go?” one of the students asked.

“No,” Krieg said, “it has a lock on it, so that wouldn’t work.”

He explained the box held a machine that collected data on the river levels. He told them it was linked to a bigger computer that tracked flood levels.

“You can use that data to see if there is enough water in the stream for animals, fish and bugs, and it also tells us where we can build homes and businesses,” he told the crowd.

After a couple of hours, it was time to turn around and head back to the classroom.

But judging by the looks on their faces, the Roosevelt group learned a lot more outside than anything they might learn back inside.

“This makes it more real for them,” said teacher Diane Wood. “Sometimes you can learn a lot more outside the four walls of a classroom.”