CAP class students spend Tuesday's class time climbing at Thrillseeker's climbing gym to celebrate the rapidly approaching end of the school year. We found it a bit more difficult than it looks, but everyone was game to hit the wall, and had a lot of success pushing past some preconceived limits, and in some cases even topping out the walls.
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.
Infused oils can be used medicinally as additives to massage oils, an aromatherapeutic addition to a bath, a topical remedy for headaches and other sprains, strains and wounds.
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PS1 CAP class students spent the weekend at Taylor Mountain, camping, hiking, and learning survival skills. With only 3 students brave enough to attend this trip, the instructors were able to delve more deeply into some complex skills, and the students responded with great interest, pushing through difficult and frustrating skills until they found success.
Students learned to construct a debris hut, often the best short-term survival shelter, but, as we found, every skill has its drawbacks. In a low-debris situation like the one we found at Taylor Mountain, the debris hut becomes less feasible, and we were able to discuss other options for a survival shelter. We fudged the hut with a tarp, and Elijah, a first-time camper, showed a ton of moxy, spending the night in the hut, even as temperatures dropped into the 30's overnight. In his own words: "It was more comfortable than my own bed, man."
Our focus then shifted from shelter to food, and students learned and constructed the Figure 4 trap, the most basic deadfall. One of the more frustrating tasks, aside from bowdrill, the Figure 4 tested the students' frustration tolerance, but in the end, all were successful. Thanks to Jessie for his assistance.
We spent the night discussing natural camouflage and stalking each other until the wee hours of the morning. See the picture below of all of us in our natural camouflage.
Pretty effective, eh? Day two was spent recovering from the previous nights' exploits, and students learned about water collection and purification in a survival situation. More traps followed, and students learned and constructed a basic Rolling Snare, and a more advanced Paiute Figure 4.
Students closed the trip with a Wandering Quest, doing some blindfold work, and sharing in gratitude for the trip, the Earth, and for the group itself.
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Class TA Jess Moneymaker taught his first of three presentations today, this one covering the Solar Still method of water collection. Jess dug and set up a solar still in a nearby garden, and discussed the various positive and negative aspects of its use as a survival water-collection technique. Click the ".mpg" link below to view a short movie of Jess' presentation, and click here to view a few more pictures of the still and class.
CAP students have spent the last few days in class learning about and discussing the causes, effects of, and remedies for global climate change. Students spent Monday watching "An Inconvenient Truth" and will finish the film on Tuesday. Students have spent discussion time talking about the recent cyclone in Myanmar, the week-old storm that spawned 28 tornadoes in the midwest, and today's storms in Missouri that killed 28, and learned the connections between global climate change and the increase in severe weather.
PS1 students spent class time today sketching the natural world around them, taking time to meticulously observe the plant structures found in the Sunken Gardens across from the school. Students filled their journal pages with the flowers, grasses, and prairie plants found in the landscaping, and then enjoyed the great weather by joining another class in a game of football.
We spent the weekend at CalWood Education Center, hiking, camping, and practicing wilderness survival skills. Students hiked 2 miles in to the campsite, set up a wide range of shelters (tarp shelter, tent, schwag), and, after some lunch
we hit the trail again to do some wildfire mitigation.
Students braved a cold night, using hot water bottles at their feet to stay warm, and loving the fire early in the morning.
After a second group hike to see a waterfall and mountain lion's winter cave,
After another delicious lunch, everyone piled into the van and headed for home.
Many thanks to our co-instructor Kelly Grebe for her assistance and expertise of the local flora, fauna, and landscape.
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Students spent the day in the park across from PS1 learning the ins and outs of backpacking gear. Topics included strategies for staying warm while sleeping, how to layer insulating clothing, water filtration, stove use, backcountry cooking, and packing strategies.
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PS1 staff and students spent a chilly Wednesday along Bear Creek on the 16th of April collecting water samples for the Sierra Club's Water Sentinels Program. Kirk Cunningham, Bill Myers, and Dan Ridgeway of the Sierra Club facilitated the outing. Students collected samples that will be laboratory tested for the presence of E coli, Selenium, Nitrogen, Phosphate, and Copper, as well as taking and recording measurements of water temperature, conductivity, and dissolved oxygen content. The Water Sentinels Program is an important grass-roots way for the public to monitor the health of their waterways, and to make sure our governmental agencies are doing all they can to keep our watershed clean.
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