As I reflect about the impact the Cottonwood Institute had this past year, I am delighted to see our impact surge in 2011. We do a lot more that just connect kids to the outdoors. In the words of one of our instructors Madeline Bachner, “Our courses are centered around cultivating direct action for positive… Read more »
The Community Adventure Program (CAP) rounded out 2011 with a great project on healthy alternatives to fast food. The students researched and used experience with their peers eating habits to shape a project based on finding healthy and affordable alternatives to the easily accessible fast food chains near the school. CAP students became interested in… Read more »
With wind chills predicted at 0 degrees Fahrenheit, the brave students from this quarter’s Community Adventure Program (CAP) at New Vista High School headed to the mountains near Allenspark, CO to take part in their first overnight of the class! Several students had never camped before and many had never been winter camping. With a week… Read more »
UPDATE – Breaking News – The Earth Task Force has WON the 2011 Center for Resource Conservation’s Youth Conservation ReWard! Congratulations goes out to ETF on a ReWard well deserved! Keep up the strong work! ### Congratulations! The Earth Task Force’s Board of Super Heroes (BOSH) was chosen as a finalist for the Center for… Read more »
Community Adventure Program (CAP) students at New Vista High School were deeply impacted by their outdoor experiences this quarter. In CAP class, one of our goals is always to awaken students to their gifts and abilities to make change in their own lives and the lives of people in their communities. The reflections of this… Read more »
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 »
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 »
It was a wonderful final quarter with the Community Adventure Program at New Vista High School this spring! The class joined together to create an action project around gardening and the appreciation of simply grown local food. We visited Growing Gardens and the Flatirons Neighborhood Farm to glean some local information from amongst the many… Read more »
