Congratulations to Nature Kids/Jovenes de la Naturaleza (NKJN) partners! The Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education’s (CAEE) Awards Selection Committee recently honored NKJN with the 2018 Advancing Environmental Literacy Award for Excellence in Environmental Education! NKJN is an innovative, 5-year, $10M collective impact project that has 2 primary goals: 1. To connect Lafayette, CO youth… Read more »
The Angevine Middle School CAP class was busy this spring – busy learning about pollinators. At first the students weren’t exactly sure how to help pollinators. One group of boys just wanted to “free the bees!” Needless to say, some learning was in order. First the students learned about all different types of pollinators: flies,… Read more »
This fire season is predicted to be one of the worst ever. In fact, just after the Centaurus High School CAP class chose wildfire prevention as their action project, two wildfires sprang up in Colorado and it was only April! Climate change, parasitic disease and an abundance of fuel are all adding up. When we… Read more »
The Angevine Middle School CAP class has always worked together fairly well. When these eighth graders arrived at Cal-Wood Education Center last weekend, most of them had been in classes together for years and in CAP class they had worked through a lot of grroup teambuilding and games. Like most middle school students, though, they tended… Read more »
It was a dark and stormy morning, when intrepid CAP class students from Centaurus High School set out for their inaugural epic backpacking adventure! They embarked on their uphill journey to Mica Mine at Cal-Wood, slipping and sliding through mud and snow with ginormous packs weighing them down, footsteps sinking deep. Arriving at the campsite,… Read more »
When I share my Angevine Middle School CAP class student action project topic with people, the first question I hear is, “How did these kids come up with this?” You see, the topic is alternative proteins, and that includes entomophagy – or including insects and arthropods as part of the diet. That is a hard… Read more »
Cottonwood Institute Community Adventure Program students at Angevine Middle School in Lafayette, CO were excited to have the Daily Camera in Boulder, CO cover their Action Project about Alternative Protein (a.k.a. eating crickets) – Yum! “Before we can get students to care about the environment, we have to teach them to love the environment,” said… Read more »
Have you ever been concerned with a local environmental issue, but didn’t think you had the tools to tackle it? STRIVE Preparatory Schools Westwood campus students rolled up their sleeves and put their skills to the test through Cottonwood Institute’s Community Adventure Program (CAP). STRIVE Westwood students that participated in the CAP class this spring… Read more »
This past weekend, Cottonwood Institute instructors and STRIVE Preparatory Schools students from two different campuses traveled with their teachers to Cal-Wood Education Center for an overnight camping adventure to learn about fire ecology in the Boulder County foothills. At Cal-Wood, students got to experience low impact camping while also learning and practicing “Leave No Trace” principles. For some STRIVE… Read more »
STRIVE Preparatory Schools’ Sunnyside students have some diverse interests. They’re interested in trash, dead fish (see below), what makes something “food,” and whether or not video games can provide solutions for cleaning up the environment. Over the four week mini-CAP course and camping trip, students explored issues of trash both in their communities and on… Read more »
