Two CHS students check out macroinvertebrates from Coal Creek.

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What Did Centaurus High School’s Coal Creek Data Reveal?

Read an update about Centaurus High School CAP Class’s water quality project on Coal Creek in Lafayette, CO. You can find the original article here. Our Spring 2022 fire/water Coal Creek project all started with the students. Their primary interest was contaminación de agua – or water pollution. When explored further, the students’ overriding view… Read more »

New Vista students fish with Colorado Parka & Wildlife at Gross Reservoir

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Water Issues through the Lens of Gross Reservoir

Students explore perspectives from different stakeholders in the Gross Reservoir Expansion Project to understand broader water issues. Written by CI Field Instructor Amy Atkins. See more photos here! In our current polarized cultural climate, it is often difficult to empathize with people who have different viewpoints from ours.  Polarization also furthers confirmation bias, an idea… Read more »

Fishing day

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Fish Catchers and Bug Collectors!

Escrito en español más abajo. AXL Academy joined Cottonwood Institute for a Friday of bug collecting and fish catching at Lake Lehow, which is a private lake owned by Denver Water and used by Colorado Parks & Wildlife (CPW) for clinics. The group started the day in inquiry mode: what bugs live in this stream?… Read more »

DCS Montessori

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Wild Times and Wildfire Learning with DCS Montessori

Cottonwood Institute and DCS Montessori explored Cal-wood through the lens of wildfire for 4 days and 3 nights. Highlights included completing a wildfire mitigation Action Project to help reduce unnaturally destructive wildfires, practicing proper fire-building techniques, playing games, and adventuring around the woods. The group was fortunate to be joined by various experts that taught… Read more »

CAP wildfire project

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CAP Fire Mitigation Action Project

Written by CAP Instructor & Curriculum Manager Chelsea Tossing If you live anywhere in the drought-stricken west, wildfire has almost definitely been on your mind these past few years. With three out of the four of Colorado’s largest wildfires ravaging the state in 2020 and both the Marshall fire and the NCAR fire impacting our… Read more »

Changemakers native pollinators Earth Day

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Changemakers give away native plants for Earth Day

Escrito en español más abajo. Early on Saturday morning, we all Changemakers met up behind the Lafayette Recreation Center to start preparing our booth for the annual Lafayette Earth Day festival. For our booth, we decided that we would inform people passing by of different native plants that they can plant in their own backyards… Read more »

CHS water testing marshall mesa

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Centaurus gathers Marshall Mesa fire stream data

For their April field day with Cottonwood Institute, Centaurus High School students tested the water quality of Coal Creek above and below the Marshall Mesa fire site. Written by CAP Instructor Erin Angel. Check out more photos here! Escrito en español más abajo. Water pollution is on the minds of the Centaurus High School CAP… Read more »

Happy students!

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Fall 2021 CAP Class Impact Report

Find out what students thought of CAP Class during fall 2021! Written by Curriculum Manager Chelsea Tossing (Escrito en español más abajo) Our 2021 CAP classes have wrapped, and it’s been an eventful semester here at CI! After COVID put a pause on our field experiences during the 2020-21 school year, we were thrilled to… Read more »

Re:Vision volunteers

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Double Holiday Volunteer Days at Re:Vision!

Have you ever seen over 36,000 pounds of food distributed to approximately 560 families in a single day? Volunteers from Cottonwood Institute, Re:Vision, We Ride 4, Elsmere Education, and Google have! This holiday season, these outstanding organizations teamed up to create boxes filled with fresh fruits and vegetables, delicious pumpkin pies, cookies, potatoes, bread, eggs,… Read more »

Westwood students cook lunch!

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STRIVE Prep – Westwood Students Do the Water Testing Dance

Written by CAP Instructor Alison Kraner (Escrito en español más abajo) The STRIVE Prep Westwood CAP Club set out for our Field Day last week! We met up at school and walked over to Huston Lake Park, where we set up shop at a sunny, lakefront picnic table. Once there, we began our watershed study… Read more »