This week we were jammin’. We made a lot of progress on our Action Project for 4 Days in May. Through a brainstorming process called “Brainwriting” we brainstormed the local outdoor and environmental issues affecting Boulder County. We then narrowed our topics down through a democratic voting process and conducted a final vote to pick the issue we will address as a class. After discussing each issue, the class voted on addressing fire mitigation in Boulder County.

On Wednesday morning, we dove in deeper and explored our Sense of Place through two activities. Everyone participated in a writing activity where we journalled about a place in nature that is very special to us. It was great to hear about everyone’s stories and gave us new insight while getting to know each other a bit more. We also took a Sense of Place quiz to assess our knowledge of our community and our naturalist skills. As a class we knew a lot about the local ecology; individually, we have much to learn.

On Wednesday afternoon, we met at Chautauqua Park to explore our “backyard.” We participated in a nature sketching activity to strengthen our observation and awareness skills. We then went on a nature hike with John Engel of Life Migrations. John is a Naturalist and facilitated a discussion about the Ponderosa Pine ecosystem and the relationship of living and non-living organisms within that ecosystem. We braved the rain and the mud and I thought everyone did great!

On Friday, we participated in a Socratic Seminar to learn more about wildfires for our 4 Days in May project. On Wednesday we learned about the benefits of fire in the Ponderosa Pine ecosystem, so before creating our Action Project on fire mitigation we discussed if we should continue to manage wildfires. It was a heated discussion, but I think we are ready to start brainstorming solutions and Action Project ideas on Tuesday. Great job this week everyone!