You can blame it all on us. That freakishly cold 48 hours sitting in the middle of beautiful fall weather, that one that froze all your tomato plants? We could give you a long explanation mentioning low pressure systems, etc. or we could just tell you the real reason: It was because the Angevine CAP class was set to go backpacking those two days and fate wanted to push us into being more creative. The dates were set on the calendar and our hearts were set on outdoor fun, so outdoor fun is what we had!
CAP students set out from school on foot, tromping through the snow towards Coal Creek where they spent hours building the perfect debris shelters, digging through the snow to find fallen branches and leaves to insulate the floors and walls. There were no school bells to say when to stop learning and creating, just the natural flow often missing from a typical school day. When students were hungry they made snow cream and ate some lunch. When their feet were soggy, they went back into the classroom where they learned to make realistic looking wounds with moulage makeup they made themselves from household supplies and then to treat those wounds using basic first aid.
The second day was cold and the roads were clear enough to head down to Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge where the group spent most of the day hiking the trails and watching bison in the distance and deer closer by. The previous day’s moisture had left the trails just muddy enough to do more tracking. After lunch, students did some citizen science water testing in Lake Mary, looked for macroinvertebrates and attempted to fish for pike. There was just enough time at the end of the day to visit the black footed ferret colony near the visitor center and get primed for the next class unit on endangered species. The days weren’t exactly what we had planned, but the kids got to do the important stuff: spend time outdoors with no school pressure, stretch their minds and bodies, and laugh and hang out with friends.
Written by Angevine CAP Instructor Erin Angel
See more photos from the trip here!
CAP at Angevine Middle School is made possible in part by a grant from Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) through the Nature Kids/Jovenes de la Naturaleza program. Click here to learn more!
