The Outdoor Classroom: An Urban Environmental Education Program

Students and their teachers from selected schools in the Denver/Boulder area are provided with outdoor topics and activities including cooperative adventures, Colorado ecosystems, a field trip to the foothills, and an overnight stay in the mountains. The program gives teachers and their classes the opportunity to learn about each other and the environment through sessions spread out over an entire school year.
Grades: fourth and fifth.

Sessions include but are not limited to:

[Expand allClose all]

• Cooperative Adventures

  Length: One-half Day
  Theme: Community, Setting the Stage
  Place: Classroom and schoolyard
  
  Description: An introduction to the Outdoor Classroom through interactive discussions and group challenges. The activities focus on the concept of community as it applies to the classroom and the natural world. Students will participate in Jump Start, Changing Places, Prairie Dogs and Hawks, and a parachute challenge. Through these activities an "eco-team" recipe will be developed.

• Water We Waiting For?

  Length: Full Day
  Theme: Biotic and Abiotic Components of a Wetland
  Place: Bluff Lake in the grasslands near Denver. Transportation by CU bus.
  
  Description: Using an apple to represent the Earth, students learn, when all of the nonpotable water is sliced away, how little water is available for consumption. Students see just how precious water is. After snacking on our Earth apple, students are introduced to the riparian habitat, food chain, watershed, and abiotic and biotic components. Health of the water is determined by collecting and identifying aquatic insects, testing for dissolved oxygen, ph, water temperature, and stream velocity. This is an exciting day because students are always amazed to see so much life in urban ponds and creeks!

• Mountain Exploration

  Length: Full Day
  Theme: Montane Ecosystem, Fire Ecology, Local History
  Place: Mount Falcon Open Space, Denver Mountain Parks. Transportation by CU bus.
  
  Description: This is truly a day in the mountains. The first comment out of many students’ mouths is, "It smells so different up here! There’s no pollution!" We begin exploring the Montane Forest through a douglas-fir/ponderosa pine ecosystem. Animal adaptations are discussed as we hunt for Buford, a stuffed brown rabbit, a favorite activity of students. The class will come upon a burned area that serves as a dynamic lesson on fire ecology and plant adaptations. After an erie hike through the ghost forest and a discussion on how the fire started, students reflect in their booklets and use charcoal to sketch a snag or flower growing out of the burned forest floor. Time permitting, we explore the ruin of John Brisban Walker’s castle before returning to the bus.

• Adventures in Camping

  Length: Two Days/One Night
  Theme: Challenge, Natural History, Positive Peer Interaction
  Place: Highlands Camp in Allenspark. Transportation by CU bus.
  
  Description: This trip combines the best of all the year's activities. For some students, it is the first time they have stayed in a cabin or gone to camp. After settling into cabins, eating lunch and having a recycling discussion, we’re off to the Hidden Room for the afternoon. This includes a discovery hike where we find all kinds of natural wonders such as animal tracks and signs, an unusual bog in the middle of a mountain meadow, and other small wonders. We discuss what "challenge" means to the students and identify types of challenges they face in school. We talk about how to manuever through the rock crevice to the Hidden Room, then begin the adventure. Students feel a sense of accomplishment as a class for completing the hike and entering this special place.
  
  Throughout the two days, students enjoy a variety of activities such as Missing Passenger, the Unnature Trail, and What Animal Am I. Other activities include team challenges, a night hike, star observation, and a campfire with s’mores. Learning to set the table, eat meals family style, serving one another, and sharing in camp chores are part of the experience. This is a memorable two days.

• Snow Wonder

  Length: Full Day
  Theme: Sub-Alpine Ecosystem, Winter Environment, Adaptation
  Place:Echo Lake near Mt. Evans, Denver Mountain Parks. Transportation by CU bus.
  
  Description: The excitement and trepidation of trying something new —snowshoeing— fills the air as students arrive at Echo Lake, a 10,400-foot elevation mountain park. After bundling up and cinching on snowshoes, squeals and faces full of snow is all you hear and see. Once we’re acclimated to the "tennis racks" on our feet, off we hike into the subalpine trail around the lake, stopping to identify animal tracks and scat. There’s much to learn and see at this elevation and students are taken by the solitude from the blanket of snow on the ground, the still and very tall forest, and the sun streaming through the branches as snow diamonds fall from the clumps of evergreen. Lunch is a welcome stop! Food tastes great outdoors and soon, after a few rounds of games on snowshoes (such as Foxes and Rabbits) everyone gets moving again. Winter ecology and safety are topics woven in throughout the day.

• Science From CU

For more information contact Deb Kulcsar at 303-735-6628 or by e-mail at debra.kulcsar@colorado.edu.