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

Action Project: In progress!

Manual students have decided to try and do something about the litter at their school.  After completing tedious research, calling on neighbors and community leaders for support, and writing a grant we have finally been able to purchase 10 additional trash cans for the school to be placed in high traffic areas.  Furthermore, students are painting the trash cans so they are attractive and more eye catching; previously, trash cans were difficult to find so students believe it was not convenient enough for kids to find the trash cans.  We are also working on an awareness campaign.  Trash cans and litter fact posters will be up on Tuesday, Dec. 16th.

Day Trip

Manual students took a day trip to explore their community and partake in a little fun!

We started at Thrillseekers, an indoor rock climbing gym.  After learning about the equipment, safety tips, and a few techniques we were ready to climb!

Tailor and Marissa race up the wall! Tayana takes her first shot at making it up the wall.

 

 

Next we met with Linda Dowlen who works with Ride Arrangers.  We learned about how people in the city can set up carpools with one another to cut down on traffic and air pollution.  

 

 

Last, we ate at SAME cafe, a restaurant that has no prices!  They serve all local and organic foods and believe all people, no matter their economic status, should be able to eat a healthy meal.  After eating, we served the staff at SAME cafe by helping clean up and close down the shop.

CAP Post Course Survey, 1st Semester 2008

As the quarter comes to a close, I wanted to get some open and honest feedback from this class about how to improve the CAP for future students. This information will not affect your grade, but please take it seriously. It will be reviewed by the school, the Cottonwood Institute, and this information will help us secure funding to make this class accessible to other high school students. Please Click Here to Take the Survey.

Trash!

Our class has decided to tackle the problem of trash at Manual High School and the neighborhood. As we begin to formulate our plan, we need to do some research into what other people are doing, what resources are out there, and how we can motivate people to stop littering. Click on the links below to begin researching:

1. Keep America Beautiful

2. Earth 911

3. The Green Team Challenge

4. No More Trash!

5. Urban Litter Partnership

After looking at a few of the sites answer the questions below:

1. Why does littering promote negative community regard?

2. What are the causes of littering?

3. What are other cities doing to prevent/solve litter problems?

4. What ideas could we adapt to possibly make work at Manual?

Pre-Course Survey, 1st Semester 2008

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.

Upcoming Courses

The Cottonwood Institute is Proud to Present our 2008 Course Schedule…

The Cottonwood Institute offers co-ed courses that provide adventurous high school students and adults with the opportunity to sleep under the stars, develop essential camping and wilderness survival skills, tackle important environmental issues, explore future careers, reduce their environmental footprint, and gain the leadership skills necessary to make a positive impact in their own communities. College credit is available through Western State College for students 16 or older. Each course is limited to 12 participants and fill quickly, so Register Today!

*Register between March 10, 2008 and June 2, 2008 and you
will be entered into a drawing to receive 2 tickets to the sold out
Jack Johnson show at Red Rocks on August 17, 2008! Click Here for more information.

COURSES FOR STUDENTS 14 - 18 YEARS OLD:

Wildland Firefighter Project

We have the unique opportunity to work with Colorado Firecamp to learn
about fire ecology, fire behavior, receive real wildland firefighter training, and
practice wilderness survival skills, while completing much needed
wildfire mitigation projects to reduce the fuel load and fire danger in the Upper
Arkansas Valley. Date: June 14 - 20, 2008. Price: $995. Location: Near Buena Vista, Colorado. Age: 14 –
18 years old.  To register for this course, please click the Register For A Course Today! link or call us at 303.447.1076. Scholarships are available.

Stone Age Survival Project

We will team up with Earth Knack to learn stone-age survival skills,
including: stone tools, stone knives, primitive weapons, friction fire, and shelter
construction and complete environmental service projects, including:
gardening, composting, fire mitigation, and green building projects, while learning how
to reduce our environmental footprint in this modern age. Date: June 26 - July 2, 2008. Price: $1,095. Location: Crestone,
Colorado. Age: 14 – 18 years old. To register for this course, please click the Register For A Course Today! link or call us at 303.447.1076. Scholarships are available.

Horse Caretaker Project

We will collaborate with Sundance Lodge to
practice essential camping and wilderness survival skills, basic horseback riding skills, and we will work together
to complete much-needed horse caretaking projects. Date: July 8 - 14, 2008. Price: $1,095. Location: near Nederland,
Colorado. Age: 14 – 18 years old. To register for this course, please click the Register For A Course Today! link or call us at 303.447.1076. Scholarships are available.

Endangered Wolves and Animal Tracking

We will work in conjunction with Mission: Wolf to learn about the
ecology, habitat, reintroduction efforts, and controversy surrounding
endangered wolves, while practicing essential wilderness survival
skills and animal tracking and completing important projects to care
for captive wolves and their habitat. Date: August 2 - 8, 2008. Price: $995. Location: Gardner, Colorado. Age: 14 – 18 years old. To register for this course, please click the Register For A Course Today! link or call us at 303.447.1076. Scholarships are available.

COURSES FOR ADULTS (Minimum Age: 18, Average Age: 30):

Mt. Evans Volunteer Project

We will collaboration with the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative and the University of Denver
to complete much needed trail maintenance and restoration work on Mt.
Evans to help give back to the mountains we love and use and to help
protect and preserve one of Colorado’s most popular 14,000 foot peaks. Date: August 22 - 24, 2008. Price: Free! Location: Mt. Evans, Colorado. Age: 18+ years old, unless accompanied by an adult. To Register: Please download and complete our Adult Registration Form. You can mail your registration form to: Cottonwood Institute, PO Box 7067, Denver, CO 80207 or scan it and email it to Ford Church. To register a group for this volunteer project, please contact Ford Church at 303.447.1076.

Essential Survival Skills

This course is for adventurous adults who are interested in practicing
essential camping and
wilderness survival skills, putting their skills to the test during a
24-hour survival scenario, and completing an environmental service
project to give back to the land.  Date: October 2 - 5, 2008. Price: $495. Location: 30 miles west of Boulder near Ward, Colorado. Age: 18+ years old, unless accompanied by an adult.  To register for this course, please click the Register For A Course Today! link or call us at 303.447.1076. 

Winter Survival Skills

Whether you are an experienced winter camping guru, snowboarder or
skier, casual snowshoer, or a beginner, this Winter Survival Skills
course could save your life. We will spend the day building emergency
snow shelters, modern fire methods, participating in winter survival
and winter medical scenarios, and discussing winter survival
priorities. This course is designed to practice the hard skills to keep
you alive during a short term winter survival scenario. Date: Winter 2009 TBA. Price: $125. Location: 25 miles west of Boulder near Ward, Colorado. Age: 18+ years old, unless accompanied by an adult. To register for this course, please click the Register For A Course Today! link or call us at 303.447.1076.

HELP SPREAD THE WORD:

Please Click Here to download a copy of our 2008 Summer Course Schedule. We are
a small grassroots organization with a limited marketing budget, so if you would be willing to print
out a copy of this flyer to post in your school, office, favorite
coffee shop, or email a copy to your friends we would absolutely love
it!

Welcome to CAP, Fall 2008!

Welcome to CAP! This semester we will become active community leaders
through identifying a local environmental issue affecting our community
and then doing something about it!  Through exploration, field trips,
and guest speakers, we will learn about environmental sustainability,
find ways to reduce our carbon footprint, develop camping and survival
skills, and discover what it means to be a leader and work on a team. 

This is our class website where we will post information, pictures,
videos, links, etc. about what we are doing throughout the semester.
This is a joint instructor/student website and it is integral that we
all contribute.  Your voice is super important!

I’m looking forward to our adventures this semester.  We are going to have a blast!