The 30th Community Adventure Program (CAP) started off the 2011-2012 school year with an energetic bang! Students took an early interest in Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and that shaped the class as they delved into research and public action! The pertinence of the topic of GMOs was amazing. The first week of class three students… Read more »
They said we were too small. They said our network wasn’t big enough. They said don’t even bother applying. They said we didn’t have a chance. And yet we did it! We just received the official announcement that the Cottonwood Institute won the 2011 Markham Mark of Distinction Award and $25,000 to support our programs… Read more »
On a rain-soaked and chilly afternoon, students from West Denver Prep Lake Campus joined forces with Earth Force and Cottonwood Institute to learn about water, or what we like to call, liquid gold, for World Water Monitoring Day. After an extremely damp walk to Sloan’s Lake to discuss the fundamentals of water conservation and to… Read more »
From allergy symptoms to lost participants to severed fingers…sounds like an instructor’s worst nightmare, doesn’t it? No worries, these were just scenarios played out during our fall instructor training course to ensure that our instructors are prepared for the worst, but ready to deliver the best courses possible! On a cloudy and chilly morning, 13… Read more »
Last February, Earth Task Force (ETF) students and staff, co-wrote a grant application for the National Environmental Education Foundation’s (NEEF) Green Prize Award. The Green Prize is a national contest for schools across the country with a prize of $10,000 to help fund the winning schools’ sustainability efforts. In 2011, over 100 schools from around… Read more »
When anybody in Boulder litters, sooner or later it ends up in the creek and river system. Not only does this destroy diverse creek ecosystems, but it also contaminates the water. Contamination is the last thing the river system needs because much of the water in Colorado runs off into the rest of the country,… Read more »
On September 8th, 2011, the Alliance for Climate Education (ACE) visited New Vista High School (NVHS) for a very special annual treat. Amy Atkins, a senior educator for ACE, with the help of the Earth Task Force (ETF), presented an interactive video with a mission to educate and inspire students to battle climate change. … Read more »
Online students are not desk bound as far as GOAL Academy is concerned. On a couple of warm sunny days this past summer Cottonwood Institute teamed up with GOAL Academy, Guided Online Academic Learning, to host two one-day survival courses for their students. Working with our amazing instructors and GOAL chaperones, the students used the… Read more »
Retaining steps, single jacks, short pick, crush, pinners, gargoyles…don’t know what any of that means? This year the Cottonwood Institute teamed up with Colorado Fourteeners Initiative (CFI) to work on the trail from Summit Lake to the summit of Mt. Evans. Our crew spent two beautiful days around 14,000 feet using these tools to improve… Read more »
This past May, while West Denver Prep students persevered through a rainy weekend camping trip, the South Platte River was lacking the water needed for a true rafting experience. Unfortunately, this resulted in the cancellation of a well-earned rafting trip for the students from this year’s Three Trees and a River Project with West Denver… Read more »
