Written by Cottonwood CAP Instructor at AXL Academy, Harmony Esqueda

The CAP class at AXL Academy enjoyed a beautiful spring field day at Golden Gate Canyon State Park. Students started off the day by checking out the visitor center which had a plethora of fun facts and interactive educational material for the students to see, read, and feel. Students got to read about the different ecosystems within Colorado, touch different types of animal fur, and listen to bird sounds. Then we all shared two new facts we learned with each other and bought some fish food for everyone to feed the rainbow trout swimming in the pond near the visitor center.

When we finished exploring and feeding fish, we all enjoyed a lunch of sandwiches at picnic benches near the pond surrounded by aspens. The weather was supposed to be gloomy and rainy but we fortunately had beautiful blue clear skies for most of our trip, which made for a calming and picturesque lunch experience. After lunch, students took to the trail surrounding the pond to see the views of the yellow aspens and read more signs scattered throughout the trail.

For the last part of our day, we drove a couple minutes over to Kriley Pond for our macroinvertebrate lesson. Field Instructor Caroline P. led the class in an activity which required students to use nets and buckets to scoop up animals in the pond and identify them. Some of the students found impressively large crayfish and other creepy-crawlies. Caroline taught about the importance and significance of macroinvertebrate populations in waterways and how this can indicate the level of water quality. Everyone was very engaged in this activity and supported each other in looking for and identifying macroinvertebrate species they found. Towards the end of the day, rain started to trickle in so we hopped in the vans back to AXL. It was a great experience to see everyone bonding and explording together to kick off our first trimester!