A Brilliant Year of CAP

When I started teaching at New Vista High School in the fall of 2008 I didn’t know what to expect. I was excited about the idea of working with high school students, and nervous about teaching again since I’d taken almost a two year break. In my wildest dreams I couldn’t have anticipated what a fantastic experience it would be to work with such inspiring, motivated, and wonderful students. I tell all of my students, amidst their groans and gripes about the assignment, that one of my favorite moments of each quarter is the day I sit down at the end of our time together to read their final reflection papers. Fourth quarter was no exception, here are a few highlights from your work. Thank you for a stellar end to an exciting year, Paige.

This quarter in CAP class I learned and loved so much more than I ever have before. I never realized that I could take so much out of just a high school class. But, I guess you should never say never, because CAP changed my mind. I feel so aware about so many things that I never even had thought about before. Simple things, like un-plugging appliances when they are not in use, and not using disposable plastic bottles. I’ve learned to respect bees and try to buy local whenever I can. I can honestly say I’ve never been loaded with so much interesting and useful information before in my life. The biggest impact that CAP has made on me though is that I care. I care when people don’t recycle, and I care about our bee populations. I’ve realized during this short quarter that there is so much I can do to change the world, to impact the earth in so many different ways. I took so much out of CAP, and the best thing is that I can give so much back. ~ Abby Heath

When I first came into CAP, I thought we would be learning about how to survive in the wild and about keeping ourselves safe. In away that was partly right, but we learned much more than that. We learned that to help ourselves in the best way, we need to first help our environment and everything in it. CAP has been a very inspirational class for me. ~ Song Candea.

Currently I recycle and compost, I try to take the bus, bike, and carpool. But since starting this class Ive been watching myself… During this class I really saw how students want to help the community and treat the world better. Because of this class I have really opened my eyes to what I can do, and I know I can make a difference because I’m not the only one trying. ~Becca Miick

CAP has shown me the potential that all human beings have. I have learned to have faith and trust in people. and to have faith in myself as well. I’ve heard many people speak of their dislike of the human race. Of themselves, their own ignorance and arrogance and wasteful tendencies. We have changed our world and look down upon ourselves for doing it. But I believe we have the potential to change it back. If we act with consideration, with knowledge, with awareness and respect for our planet and each other we can change the world in different ways, in better ways. ~ Lindsey Quakenbush

The Community Adventure Program class, as a whole, was an absolutely amazing experience that I hope to repeat in the future… In that first day attending class I wasn’t super psyched about the other people in the class. I only really knew two of them and even them I didn’t know well. We didn’t hang out with the same people or have the same hobbies, or share any apparent interests, so why would I be excited? My first impression couldn’t have been more wrong. Out of this group of kids who, only a few seemed to “fit together,” an amazing connection bloomed around our shared concern and interest in the environment around us… I mean everyone in the class I feel I’ve made some sort of a connection with, one that I didn’t have before. And all the while we also got to make a difference. This by far was one of the most influential and enjoyable times of my school career. ~Jordan

Although I may be repeating myself, this is my summary of CAP class, I have learned about myself and what I am capable of. And I have learned skills for camping and gardening. I will always use these skills throughout my life. I am grateful for this class because it has made me realize that I can branch out and meet more people who I want to be friends with. I want to be outside more now, and learn more about camping and the outdoors. Thanks for providing me with this wonderful opportunity. ~ Malcolm Marshall

In my opinion school is boring. When I think about school I picture myself sitting in a classroom bored out of my mind messing with the paper clip or pencil I am usually playing with–but not fourth period. Fourth period is great! To me, “school” ends at 12:05. After that I have lunch and then CAP, which is not thumb twiddling or paperclip bending boring. It’s actually really fun and during a regular school day. Our class is so close and open with each other. Our class has been through rain, shine, and snow, each bump just makes us closer and stronger. I really enjoyed CAP this quarter and I am excited to take it next year! Ian Nagel-Brice

CAP Post Course Survey, 4th Quarter 2009

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 your 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.

Green Building, Bees, and Local Food!

We began our action project week at Resource 2000 helping around the yard to learn about building green by using reclaimed materials. In exchange for our work we received tiles, fencing, and a few other necessities for our garden.

In the afternoon we met with Ryland Gardner of the Boulder Green Building Guild to hear more about things we can do around home to reduce our environmental footprints.

On Thursday we had an amazing visit from beekeeper Christina Allen. Amongst the many amazing things that we learned about bees here are a few facts:

• It takes bees 10,000 trips between flowers to make one teaspoon of honey.
• If you see a bee at a flower it is a worker, and therefore a female.
• Bee populations are declining and we still don’t know exactly why!
• When there is a lot of nectar in an area bees do a dance called “the bee dance,” which lets other bees in the hive know they should head out and look for nectar.

Students made a bee mural which will be placed in our garden!

On Friday we continued the labor intensive work of digging our garden and planting our seeds! Alex from Growing Gardens joined us to work in the morning.  As well as garden planning help, we received seeds, plant starts, and discounted compost from the generous folks at Growing Gardens. Thank you!

Students toughed it out in less than ideal weather (rainy and 40’s) to create New Vista’s own local food and pollinator garden. We’ll be putting the fence up this week and preparing for our grand opening later this month!

Well done CAP class, we’ve completed another successful action project.

More Pictures Below.

Action Project Week Schedule

This quarter students have chosen three different themes for each of their three days in spring action project:

Green Living at Home, The Plight of the Bees, and Local Gardening What is it Good For? TONS!.

Students broke up into focus areas depending on their interest and passion for the subject:

Here is our schedule and our problem statements for our action project week:

Wednesday 29th: Green Living at Home

Did you know that 80% of the energy used for a machine washed load goes to heating the water, and that there is no benefit to using hot water unless it is an all-white load?

It is difficult to imagine how much energy we use , how much one flush really means, or what happens when we turn on a light connected to a coal plant. As such we would like to educate ourselves, our school, and our community about some simple things we can all do to reduce our carbon footprint.
Meet at 9am. Head over to Resource 2000 to volunteer in exchange for fence materials for our garden, and possibly model materials for a “green village.”

We will return to school between 12 and 1. Have lunch.

At 1:30 Ryland Gardner from the Boulder Green Builders Guild will speak with us about green living and building.

Thursday 30th: The Plight of the Bees

Bee populations are rapidly declining throughout the U.S. There are many theories as to why this is happening, (genetically modified crops, rough transportation, use of pesticides herbicides) humans seem to be to blame in many of these scenarios. Roughly one third of our current food supply is pollinated by bees from commercial bee farms. Food like almonds, raspberries, and many others rely on bees. Bees are a keystone species and essential to a thriving ecosystem. We want to educate ourselves and others about the importance of bees and the reason for their disappearance.  One of the ways to help bees is to create habitat for them, we will finish our week by creating a bee garden!

9:00 am meet.

Christina Allen — Bee Keeper and environmental educator from Thorne Ecological Institute will meet with us in the morning to teach us all about bees.

The second part of this day we are going to create a mural all about bees and what’s happening to them, or what we think is happening to them.  We will also start work on our garden which includes a special bee section!

Friday May 1st: Local gardening: what is it good for?  TONS!

A healthy economy, people, and our environment all benefit from a healthy local food system. Currently, the majority of energy used in the US food system (about 80%) goes to processing, packaging, transporting, storing, and preparing food. Produce in the US travels, on average, between 1300-2000 miles from farm to customer. The fact is that we are polluting our planet through our food choices. Truck transportation has largely replace the more energy efficient methods of transporting food by train and boat. This is just part of why it is important to support locally grown agriculture. The food is also fresher, less processed, and overall healthier for humans and the environment. We will create a garden at school to help raise awareness about the benefits of local food and also to help teach others how to start gardens of their own!

Introduction to gardening, why we are doing this, reading packets and activities…

Growing Gardens is coming to help us start our garden at school. This will be the focus all day.

Others will make informational signs for the garden as well as identification signs for plants.

What is your Environmental Footprint?

Hey there CAP class. You have a couple of online tasks.

The first is to calculate your environmental footprint by clicking here: Feel free to estimate if you don’t know exact numbers.  Be sure to record your results in your journal.

2. Write a web journal entry in response to the questions below. To write a web journal entry just click on the “comments” section of the corresponding post (i.e. this one.)

QUESTIONS:

1. What were the actions that made your footprint go up or down the most?
2. Are there actions you can take to lower your footprint? If so what are they?
3. Were you surprised by the results why or why not?
4. Feel free to take the quiz a second time, inserting different numbers to see how you could change your results.

Community Cleanup Day!

Hey, everyone! The City of Boulder is hosting a Community Cleanup Day on Saturday, May 16th. It goes from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m., and there’s an ice cream social at Scott Carpenter Park directly after (only go if you volunteered for the morning)!  PLUS, everyone who participates will get a one-day pass to Boulder Reservoir!

-What you’d be doing if you volunteered:
cleaning up Boulder! You’d remove trash and recyclables from various sundry places,plant flowers and pull weeds in/from parks and greenways!

- How to sign up:
You can register, either online or by phone, as an individual or as a group — bring your friends!– by may 13th. For more info, call 303-413-7245.
Also, you choose the location you want to help clean up from the following list, and on-site project leaders will help provide supplies and direction.

Locations to chooose from:
• Andrews Arboretum
• Bear Creek Greenway
• Bear Creek Underpass at Broadway and Table Mesa
• Chautauqua Park
• Columbia Cemetery
• Dry Creek Trail
• Elmer’s Two-Mile Creek Greenway
• Foothills Community Park
• Four Mile Creek Greenway
• Goose Creek Greenway
• Goose Creek Underpass at Foothills
• Harlow Platts Park
• Mount Sanitas Trail
• Scott Carpenter Park
• South Boulder Creek Greenway
• Skunk Creek Greenway
• Skunk Creek Underpass at 27th Way
• Skunk Creek Underpass at Baseline NE side
• Skunk Creek Underpass at Broadway W side
• Wonderland Creek Underpass at 30th & Iris

Visit BoulderParks-Rec.org for a map of these locations

Website: www.BoulderParks-Rec.org

I hope everyone can come!

Have fun,
~ Josie

In Your Words…

Your words say it all… Thanks for an amazing quarter, Paige.

“When someone takes action on something they are passionate about, the final product can be one that is very influential and astounding…From goofy games to lengthy talks about trees’ rights, CAP has opened my eyes to the wonders and beauties in nature. Not only that, but also to the very apparent harms and dangers that we as a race continue to spread and feed. We are on the eve of a social revolution. Change is in the air, and it has been on its way. It is our time to join this change, and to water and feed it. We are the ones who are ready to break the norms that we have lived by for decades. Be ready for the wave to hit, because when it does, the world as a whole will come together to help our planet thrive.” ~ Will Barrett.

“I was psyched when we chose this issue [over-consumption] for our action project and it was encouraging to know other people cared about it too. In the time period between first becoming interested in the topic, to actively working on it in the class, I was teeter-tottering between making myself ignore it in the community and to feeling extremely helpless and angry at the people who over-consumed. CAP has helped me stay consistent in my desire to have a more positive impact on the world. I have been able to discover that we play an essential role in the world as individuals, and we can make a difference. But I have also learned that it’s important not to discourage yourself harshly with the big idea of what’s going on environmentally.” ~Olive

“This class helped me become aware of the issues facing us today and how they can affect our future. It amazed me how many people consume so much, just in the U.S. … I learned that recycling isn’t always the answer and first we must learn how to reduce and reuse…I have learned so much about how to educate people I find myself randomly saying facts about trash and recycling… In the end this class has been one of the most educational and spiritual experiences of my life. It wasn’t even a math, science, or history class that provided me with knowledge in place that are relative to life. It’s sad to see the class ending and I am excited for the next time to build new bonds with more people.” ~Aren Dalloul.

“This class helped raise my awareness on the important environmental issues affecting my community. I really want to do something to reduce me own ecological footprint. For me I like to help by riding my bike, skating, or taking the bus… I am constantly talking to my family and friends about a number of issues that we discussed in this class. I also hope to lead by example. I believe that I was part of a great class that not many students have the opportunity to experience. I think that all New Vista High School students should take this class before they graduate. The Community Adventure Program was an amazing experience that gave me a lot of information and knowledge about wilderness skills and community issues.” ~Charles Shanahan

“CAP has been a great class. The overnights were a whole lot of fun. It was great to see the group become friends and learn how to work together. I wish we had more time. I really enjoyed the class and would take CAP 2 if it was offered. I learned and used more real world skills and worked to actually make a difference. I made a few friends and had some interesting discussions. Thank you for teaching CAP.” ~ Brynn Reiff

“Before this class I used multiple plastic bags to carry my lunch in just one day. I brought a plastic water bottle and a hot drink in a disposable cup. I threw everything away, took 20 minute showers, and bought severely over-packaged products. My lifestyle now has not become any more difficult but it is much less wasteful… I feel as though my new found passion to help the environment and my positive attitude will help me once I have left CAP… CAP has been such a wonderful experience and I will carry all that I learned and accomplished with me.” ~Aleyna Porreca

“This class defininetly helped me see the bigger picture in Boulder, and throughout the country. I see where I stand and I understand it. I have brief moments where I realize I actually mean something among the abundance of life and commotion… This class really helped me put myself into a state of being where community means something more than a barbeque. It means taking resposibility and considering each other’s place in the world, and incorporating those thoughts into your everyday lifestyle. All in all, this over all of my classes has had the largest impact on  my life, and it probably will for the rest of my life. No regrets. No dissatisfactions. This class was sweet.” ~ Keelan Sears.

CAP Pre-Course Survey, 4th Quarter

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 Post Course Survey, 3rd Quarter 2009

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 your 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.

Action Project Week is Almost here…

After speaking at length with Joe, our custodian, several other staff members, and Eco-Cycle, students came up with the following problem statement this quarter:

New Vista High School Students (and others) buy excessively packaged products and do not know proper disposal methods. This leads to large amounts of trash that could either be recycled, composted, or eliminated altogether. In addition improper recycling can send entire loads of recyclable materials to the landfill.

This is the tentative schedule for their action project week March 2-6.

Schedule of Events:

· Monday, March 2^nd, 2009: Posting of 3D recycling signs and seminars on bulk buying (in selected advisories)

· Tuesday, March 3^rd, 2009: Direct outreach, students stationed at trash cans and recycle bins.

· Wednesday, March 4^th, 2009: “Bring your own mug” coffee day. (free coffee/tea but only if you have a mug!)

· Thursday, March 5^th, 2009: Dumpster trash audit and “ask an expert.”

· Friday, March 6^th, 2009: Clean up the Neighborhood—tackling non-point source pollution.