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

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. 

Upcoming Winter Survival Workshop for Adults!

Get ready to dawn your snow pants, hat and gloves, and join the Cottonwood Institute for a thrilling, action-packed day of winter survival! It may be snowy and cold, but that’s all the more reason the get out in the mountains to ski, snowshoe, camp, sled and play. While your enjoying you favorite winter activities it is a good idea to know some important winter survival skills. The Cottonwood Institute is hosting a one day Winter Survival Skills Workshop for adults on January 24th, 2009. This knowledge may just come in handy or it could end up saving your life.

In this course you will learn and practice skills that can be used in short term winter survival situations. Throughout the day you will learn survival priorities, how to make emergency snow shelters, fire making techniques, and how to put together a winter survival kit. You will also participate in interactive winter survival and winter medical scenarios. So bundle up and come learn how to survival in the snow and ice!

For more information on the course and how to register click the following link, Winter Survival Skills Workshop.