When the nation went into lockdown last year and students transitioned to online learning, some learners went into a kind of dormancy. The second period CAP outdoor class at Angevine Middle School had many students who hadn’t participated much in online learning and were both eager and hesitant to go back to school with hybrid… Read more »
Combining things we like to do or want to learn with a desire to help the planet is what Action Projects are all about. The first period CAP class at Angevine Middle School is an enthusiastic bunch with lots of interests, so they decided to bring awareness to pollinators by setting aside a week to… Read more »
For the first time, CAP class at AXL Academy has been offered as a yearlong elective, allowing students to dig deeper into environmental topics and issues specific to their community. CAP Instructor Katie Morton shared some reflections on the first two trimesters as her class moves into spring: In the last year, the words “unprecedented,”… Read more »
The fall CAP class at Angevine Middle School was one of the more unusual in recent memory, shifting from online to in-person and back over just nine weeks. In spite of all the disruptions, students had the chance to build outdoor skills, develop a connection to the natural world, and make critical connections. One of… Read more »
Imagine that you are trying to give a sales presentation and you are in a video meeting staring at twenty-three icons. You make a joke—trying to break the ice, get a reaction. The icons are unwavering. This is virtual teaching in a COVID autumn. What you are selling is engagement with peers, connection to each… Read more »
The beginning of March is an exciting time for Cottonwood Institute (CI) CAP Programs at Centaurus High School (CHS) and Angevine Middle School (AMS). We play creative games and brainstorming games as we come up with ideas for how to solve problems in our communities. Students form coalitions to lobby other students on their… Read more »
As so many of us have done these last 8 weeks or so, Cottonwood Institute needed to pivot and change how we do things in this age of physical distancing. The biggest concern for our instructors was: how do you turn an outdoor, environmental service learning class into a virtual experience? Lucky for CI, experiential… Read more »
With schools transitioning to distance learning and students spending (understandably) less time outside, Cottonwood Institute has been faced with the tough question of how to make environmental education accessible and relevant in a time when we can’t do many of the things that normally make up a CAP Class. Fortunately, our team has quite a… Read more »
Last week, the KIPP: Sunshine Peak Academy (KSPA) CAP Club headed out for an exciting second field day at the Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield Farms. The group was very adaptable after their original plan to visit The GrowHaus had to be changed, and they embraced the spontaneity on a trip filled with games, learning,… Read more »
On a serendipitous sunny day in February, forces aligned to restore Coal Creek from the 2013 floods. Lafayette CAP Outdoor students from Centaurus High School and Angevine Middle School worked with Wildlands Restoration Volunteers, the City of Lafayette, and Biologists from University of Colorado to plant willows to shore up the banks of the flood-damaged… Read more »
