Welcome to the CAP Club!

Welcome to the CAP Club Blog!

Hello!! Welcome to New Vista High School’s NEW CAP (Community Adventure Program) Club! I’m so excited things are finally getting rolling. Not so long ago we didn’t even know what CAP Club was going to be, and now we’ve not only figured out our purpose, but some great activities, too!

So, wait; back up. Who is this ‘we?’ Well, ‘we’ are the three founding members of CAP Club; Hannah, Zander and me, Josie (you’ll be hearing from mainly me online).

All three of us have taken the CAP class before; Hannah and I were in the 1st quarter class, and Zander was in the 2nd. Hannah and I first collaborated to begin the CAP Club at the beginning of 2nd quarter, and Zander joined us a few weeks after. We all loved the CAP Class and wanted to continue CAP after we had finished it.

We have officially decided on our roles for CAP Club, and they are as follows: Hannah is the action of the CAP Club; the public speaker; outgoing and spirited. Zander is the Alternative Transportation Day guy; he always has great ideas and makes them happen. I (Josie) am the voice; the writer, the shy genius (humble I am not). If you’re looking for specifics in any of these categories, talk to the person who knows the most about them. (You can always ask any of us about anything relating to the CAP Club though, of course.)

And now that you know a bit about us, I can explain what CAP Club is all about!

CAP Club aims to inform peers about environmental problems and, more importantly, how to fix them. It is also a great place to start actively bringing about environmental change. But, and this is very important, CAP Club is FUN! It’s not a club that just talks and talks and gets nothing done — it’s a place where kids who want to help the environment can join together and talk, be active and simply enjoy the outdoors. Also, since this club is just getting started, anyone who wants to help shape it will be welcomed! We are always looking for fresh insight.

CAP Club has meetings biweekly, and every single time we meet will not be empty talk, but an event, whether it be hiking, learning at a how-to clinic or a mini Action Project (if you don’t already know, in the CAP Class kids do the Action Project to help the environment/community on an environmental subject, such as water or air pollution). We really hope to have had events in each category by the end of the year, because too much of one thing becomes dull and repetitive.

WE ARE HAVING AN INFORMATIONAL MEETING ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 29th IN ROOM 202 AT LUNCH!!! PLEASE come, even if you are only slightly interested. I have had word that there will be food there, so don’t worry about going hungry. And if you have any questions about CAP Club, ask them on Thursday or respond to this blog! We’ll be happy to answer them as best we can.

That’s it. Thanks a bunch for reading my novel above, and I hope to see you guys soon!

~ Josie

Did you know that…

Did you know that…

• 115 pounds of newspaper is the equivalent of one tree?
• Paper makes up about 34 percent of our garbage– the largest chunk?
• In Boulder you can now recycle plastics numbered 1-7, but only if the plastic is a certain shape?
• There are many other things you can recycle, like plastic bags, if you take them to the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials or CHARM?
• Metal, like steel and aluminium, can be recycled and infinite number of times, while most plastic can only be recycled once?
• That aluminium is mined from beneath the rain forest?
• That if you recycle the “wrong” materials the whole lot of recycling goes to the landfill??

This is just some of what we learned last week when eco-cycle’s Alycia Bouyounan came to visit CAP.

We also learned that New Vista High School students have A LOT to learn when it comes to where their garbage goes, what can and cannot be thrown away and what isn’t trash at all! Check out the photos from  our trash audit!

We found more after this photo was taken: a granola bar, and a pack of cookies.

Much of what we found could have been composted, but composting isn’t slated to arrive at most high schools for at least two years. Meanwhile landfills are filling… could this be a job for CAP kids, stay tuned…

Pick It Up!

Issue: Litter!

During the fall semester of the 2008-2009 school year, the Cottonwood Institute collaborated with Manual High School to offer the Community Adventure Program. During this class, students are empowered to coordinate a student-directed Action Project to address a local environmental issue.

Students jumped right in, rolled up their sleeves, and decided to tackle the issue of trash at their school for their Action Project. They noticed that not only was there a large amount of trash in the hallways, lunchroom, and outside courtyard, but also on surrounding streets and within the community as well. After learning that litter is often correlated with increases in violence and decreases in business success, they knew that something needing to be done!

Plan: Research, Resources, and Education

Students researched the causes and impact of litter. They also met with key community leaders to learn how they have impacted the community, what resources might be available for them, grant writing skills, and marketing and education strategies. Students researched where in the school there was the most litter and interviewed students and staff to find out their perspective on the problem. After all their research was complete, students decided they wanted to increase the amount of trash cans at their school because the current ones were overflowing. Their goal was to make the trash cans more attractive, visible, and to launch an education and awareness campaign so students would be more likely to use them.

Impact: Pickin’ It Up

Student partnered with the Whittier Neighborhood Association and wrote a grant to the Denver Foundation to purchase 10 new trash cans for the school and they won the grant! They painted the trash cans in Manual colors and placed them strategically around the school in high traffic, high litter locations. Students also created an awareness campaign highlighting litter facts, what students can do to help, and why they should care about having a clean school. This information was presented to the students body and posted around the school near the new trashcans. Students were featured in the Whittier Neighborhood Association Newsletter for their efforts.

“ I really enjoyed being in this class. It was a new experience for me and I learned something new about my neighborhood. I also got to do things that I have never tried before. Before I didn’t really care if I littered or what the effect of my littering was. Now, I don’t litter and if there is a trash can by me then I put my trash in it and not on the floor.” -Tailor Boling, 10th grader

“I think the CAP class as a whole is great. I have learned several things like that I can make a change in my community and be a positive role model. My favorite part of this class was that we got to take day trips. I also liked doing our Action Project because it will make our school and community look nice and cleaner.” – Alivia Rodriguez, 9th grader

“It feels good to be the first CAP class because we put our minds towards something and we actually succeeded in it. We not only helped ourselves, but our school, our neighbors, and many other people as well.” – Marissa Holmes, 9th grader

Action Project: Pick It Up!

Issue: Litter!

During the fall semester of the 2008-2009 school year, the Cottonwood Institute collaborated with Manual High School to offer the Community Adventure Program. During this class, students are empowered to coordinate a student-directed Action Project to address a local environmental issue.

Students jumped right in, rolled up their sleeves, and decided to tackle the issue of trash at their school for their Action Project. They noticed that not only was there a large amount of trash in the hallways, lunchroom, and outside courtyard, but also on surrounding streets and within the community as well. After learning that litter is often correlated with increases in violence and decreases in business success, they knew that something needing to be done!

Plan: Research, Resources, and Education

Students researched the causes and impact of litter. They also met with key community leaders to learn how they have impacted the community, what resources might be available for them, grant writing skills, and marketing and education strategies. Students researched where in the school there was the most litter and interviewed students and staff to find out their perspective on the problem. After all their research was complete, students decided they wanted to increase the amount of trash cans at their school because the current ones were overflowing. Their goal was to make the trash cans more attractive, visible, and to launch an education and awareness campaign so students would be more likely to use them.

Impact: Pickin’ It Up

Student partnered with the Whittier Neighborhood Association and wrote a grant to the Denver Foundation to purchase 10 new trash cans for the school and they won the grant! They painted the trash cans in Manual colors and placed them strategically around the school in high traffic, high litter locations. Students also created an awareness campaign highlighting litter facts, what students can do to help, and why they should care about having a clean school. This information was presented to the students body and posted around the school near the new trashcans. Students were featured in the Whittier Neighborhood Association Newsletter for their efforts.

“ I really enjoyed being in this class. It was a new experience for me and I learned something new about my neighborhood. I also got to do things that I have never tried before. Before I didn’t really care if I littered or what the effect of my littering was. Now, I don’t litter and if there is a trash can by me then I put my trash in it and not on the floor.” -Tailor Boling, 10th grader

“I think the CAP class as a whole is great. I have learned several things like that I can make a change in my community and be a positive role model. My favorite part of this class was that we got to take day trips. I also liked doing our Action Project because it will make our school and community look nice and cleaner.” – Alivia Rodriguez, 9th grader

“It feels good to be the first CAP class because we put our minds towards something and we actually succeeded in it. We not only helped ourselves, but our school, our neighbors, and many other people as well.” – Marissa Holmes, 9th grader

What does it all mean?? 1st Web Journal 3rd quarter

  We’ve seen the impact of the “Average” American footprint on the planet, it doesn’t look good.

We’ve hiked to Chautauqua to begin to learn our natural world, and to look at the environmental issues faced by Open Space and Mountain Parks in Boulder

We’ve read a report on Boulder County’s environmental strengths and weaknesses.

We’ve also begun to examine our place in the natural world and ask some challenging questions: how do humans fit into the picture? What are our responsibilities? How do we make change? Should we?

For your first Web Journal please use your notes from our class discussion, What Does it All Mean? To answer the following questions:

1. What does it all mean to you?

• Do you feel inspired, hopeful, overwhelmed?
• Use specific examples from what we have done in class to give an idea of what you are thinking about all this information. 

Every Drop Counts: Water Conservation Action Project

Did you know that the United States alone disposes of over 22 billion petroleum based water bottles every year, and that each of these bottles will take an estimated one million years to decompose? The second quarter Community Adventure Program (CAP) class at New Vista High School heard this and decided to take action! In addition to learning important outdoor survival skills and awareness, each CAP class must take on a current environmental issue in their own self-designed action Project. This past quarter, students at New Vista chose to address local water issues.

Students broke up their action project focus into two separate issues: bottled water and water conservation. The production and transportation of bottled water is contributing to global climate change and chemicals in the plastic are potentially harmful to human health. Water is essential for all living beings, but as humans we tend to take it for granted. Living in the semi-arid region of Boulder, Colorado, water conservation is critical.

To begin their project, students logged on to the net to research bottled water use and abuse. They learned about their local water shed through a presentation by Jennelle Freeston of the Keep it Clean Partnership, and interviewed John Winchester of High Country Hydrology to learn about water issues concerning Colorado and the laws surrounding rainwater harvesting. After all this, the students had a meeting to form a plan of action. They decided on three separate modalities: a proposal to the Boulder Valley School District Coordinator to replace toilets and urinals in schools with water conserving low-flow models, a continuation of their research on rainwater harvesting, and a video to educate peers, family and the community about bottled water and water conservation.

According to Levi McIntire, “the amount of work that was put into this project was amazing. The video that we made will be a huge success for everyone in the CAP class. I am very glad that this project went well and no one had a sour attitude towards it. Because of this we were able to make something so great. I thank everyone in my class. It was so nice to do something for the environment. I learned many things in this class that I would not learn in any other class including group skills and problem solving skills.”

By the end of the class, CAP students completed yet another successful action project. They submitted a Low-Flow Appliance Proposal to Ghita Carrol, the Boulder Valley School District Sustainability Coordinator, and held three different viewings of the movie they created at the New Vista High School Exhibition Day. Even now after the end of the class students are still working to get their movie aired on a local community television station CCTV 54. Already the class has reached over 80 people with their movie. Unfortunately rainwater harvesting proved to be a subject too complicated to include in the video in the short amount of time the students had. To finish it all off the class spent two hours cleaning up Boulder Creek and collected 6 bags of trash and one bag a recycling. Students learned that they can make a difference through action in their own lives and will continue their efforts into the upcoming semester. 

Welcome 3rd Quarter CAP

Third quarter–winter CAP– is here!

This week we’ve been hiking, getting to know each other and our local environment, playing in the beautiful snow, and… more coming soon.

“No problem is insurmountable. With a little teamwork, courage, and determination, a person can overcome anything.” –Peter Scott.

CAP Pre-Course Survey, 3rd Quarter 2009

Welcome to the Community Adventure Program. Before we get started, we need to get some feedback about your outdoor experience, your thoughts about the environment, your community, etc. Please answer this survey honestly and to the best of your ability. The good folks who fund this class use this information to assess the performance of the class and this information will help us acquire new grants. Please Click Here To Take The Survey.

CAP Pre-Course Survey, 3rd Quarter 2009

Welcome to the Community Adventure Program. Before we get started, we need to get some feedback about your outdoor experience, your thoughts about the environment, your community, etc. Please answer this survey honestly and to the best of your ability. The good folks who fund this class use this information to assess the performance of the class and this information will help us acquire new grants. Please Click Here To Take The Survey.

Students Clean up Creek as Part of Action Project!

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