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Staff Spotlight: Senior Instructor Erin Angel

We are excited to do a little bragging about our amazing Cottonwood Institute (Cottonwood) Senior Instructor, Erin Angel (she/her)! Erin is a woman of many talents, interests, and passions, and we are excited for you to get to know her better! Erin teaches Cottonwood’s core CAP Class and Changemaker Program in Boulder County. Erin helps… Read more »

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Base Camp Bash 2022 was Bodacious & Bustling!

With bluegrass music, craft cocktails, Yeti hats, cotton candy, Ripple Effect Awards, and so much more, the 2022 Base Camp Bash was definitely bodacious and bustling. The Base Camp Bash is the main fundraising event for Cottonwood Institute and raises approximately 20% of our annual operating budget – no pressure! Having said that, we are… Read more »

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Colorado Wildfire Project

Colorado Wildfire Project During this program, we will camp on-site and take a deep dive into learning about wildfires in Colorado. The curriculum explores how wildfires impact soil and land health, and investigates fire ecology and erosion. Students will check out new and old wildfire burn areas, and complete wildfire mitigation Action Projects to help… Read more »

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Outdoor Skills Programs

Multi-day outdoor skills programs for middle and high schools. Cottonwood Institute collaborates with schools and youth organizations along the Colorado Front Range—primarily for middle and high school students—to provide high quality, high impact environmental education and service-learning programs. We run multi-day outdoor skills programs close to home in the Front Range or at one of… Read more »

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Environmental Programs

Multi-day environmental programs for middle and high schools. Cottonwood Institute collaborates with schools and youth organizations along the Colorado Front Range to provide high quality, high impact environmental education and service-learning programs. We run programs close to home in the Front Range or at one of our overnight sites. See below to learn about the… Read more »

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Out-of-School Environmental Education Programs

Multi-day environmental education programs for middle and high schools.   Cottonwood Institute collaborates with schools and youth organizations across the Colorado Front Range to provide high quality, high impact environmental education and service-learning programs. We run programs close to home or at one of our overnight sites along the Colorado Front Range. See below to… Read more »

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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 »

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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 »

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Angevine CAP Students Pick Pollinators

Combining things we like to do or want to learn with a desire to help the planet is what Action Projects are all about. The first period CAP class at Angevine Middle School is an enthusiastic bunch with lots of interests, so they decided to bring awareness to pollinators by setting aside a week to… Read more »

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Top 10 Inspiring Stories from 2020!

2020 has been a lot of things, and while “inspiring” may not be the first word that comes to mind, there were in fact many things to be inspired by in the world of Cottonwood Institute! Our instructors stepped up to the challenge of adapting their programs in a big way, and our students were… Read more »