Dr. Stephen R. Kellert of Yale University states, "Play in nature, particularly during the critical period of middle childhood, appears to be an especially important time for developing the capacities for creativity, problem-solving, and emotional and intellectual development."​

Dr. Louise Chawla (Journal of Environmental Education, 1998, 1999) found that positive, direct experience in the out-of-doors and being taken outdoors by someone close to the child—a parent, grand parent, or other trusted guardian—are the two most significant factors that contribute to individuals choosing to take action to benefit the environment when they are adults. Dr. Chawla states, "The very fact that a parent or grandparent chose to take the child with them to a place where they themselves found fascination and pleasure, to share what engaged them there, suggests not only care for the natural world, but, equally, care for the child."

The American Institutes for Research® found that at-risk students who experienced a weeklong residential outdoor education program experienced a 27% increase in measured mastery of science concepts, enhanced cooperation and conflict resolution skills, gains in self-esteem, gains in positive environmental behavior, and gains in problem-solving, motivation to learn, and classroom behavior over students who had not had the outdoor learning experience.

The "California Student Assessment Project" (2000) found that students in environment-based instructional programs score as well or better on standardized measures in four basic subject areas—reading, math, language and spelling. The environment-based programs also foster cooperative learning and civic responsibility, using the natural characteristics of the school grounds and local community as the foundational framework for the curricula.

Dr.s Kellert and Derr (Yale, 1998) conducted the most comprehensive research to date on the effects of wilderness-based outdoor education for teenage students. The majority of respondents found the outdoor experience to be "one of the best in their life" and participants reported positive effects on their personal, intellectual, and, in some cases, spiritual development. Pronounced results were found in enhanced self-esteem, self-confidence, independence, autonomy and initiative. These results persisted through many years.

The SAP high schoolers built a little lending library, complete with our mascot, the Tiger Salamander! If you're in the neighborhood (841 Gapter Rd.), bring some books! 

The Japanese practice of "Forest Bathing," simply hiking and sitting in a forest with the intention of bathing yourself in the colors, smells, and sounds of the forest has measurable long-lasting health impacts from lower blood pressure to an increase in anti-cancer proteins! For more information and a short video on Forest Bathing, visit www.Shinrin-yoku.org

One of the greatest influences in forming the Scientific Method comes from Socrates and his method of Socratic Questioning in which a series of questions are posed to help a person or group to determine their underlying beliefs and the extent of their knowledge. 

I have recently trained to lead Socratic Seminars and I've practiced in various grade-level classes at BCSIS (Boulder School for Integrated Studies). Although SAP is generally "out and about," active and hands-on, I am ready to bring the process of Socratic Seminar to the students! 

Inspired recently by seeing Jane Goodall speak, I will start with the topic of "How can we, as groups and individual people, best help the environment?" I'm also in communication with CU Professor and animal behaviorist Marc Bekoff about speaking to my group and following with a Socratic Seminar on the topic of "How do we feel about eating meat?" 

I will post with updates as we learn how to "disagree agreeably," learn the art of jumping into conversation without raising hands, and treating all members of the group with equal respect by using each other's names and referring directly to a text or experience to further our arguments. 

As Always, "Ask Questions, Make Mistakes, and Get Dirty!" 

​Christina

I just started a new blog, "Seeking Miss Adventure Not Miss Perfect," in which my latest post is about my tent (with me in it!) getting stomped on by a mama moose while I was backpacking with students this summer near Allenspark. Little did I know it, but at the same time as I was writing my story, two of my students were writing their own stories about the experience for writing assignments at school.  I take it as a huge compliment that their experiences with me in SAP are the ones they choose to write about at school. Below are the two students' stories: 

“Camping with Moose” by Matan Edelstein

It started like a normal summer day. I was with a camp at Salamander Pond, Colorado. The camp was called SAP.Standing for Science Adventure Program.The trees were as tall as rocket ships, reaching up to the Heavens.The grass felt like slightly wet like fur blowing in the wind. The sun shining high like a shooting star.  We were all camping.

We were setting up our campsite when we saw a moose on the other side of the pond. We rushed our selves and took out a couple of binoculars and looked in to the beautiful lenses. The moose was drinking water by the pond with three calves by its side. We had a dog named Zeke with us. We were worried about Zeke and the moose fighting and all, but we put the thought aside.    

After campsite was set up, we went to bed dreaming of the amazing sightings.

We didn’t get much sleep because in the middle of the night, us campers heard a blasting, bang-bang-bang! We heard a strange noise.                                                               
It sounded like the noise was getting closer!

Now it was right outside our tent! We looked out and there was a moose! The moose had a rough piercing gaze like x ray-vision, it’s fur so rough and strong. We were all panicked. The ground cackled evilly under the mooses bare feet.

“Bad moose! Go away moose!” we chanted together.

Then it ran away with three calves by it’s side.       

Once we got home we told our friends and family that did not come about the amazing adventure. It was amazing! ——--The End


“THE MOOSE TRAMPLE” by Jack de Martino

Three months  ago I went camping with my mom and her students. We started at my house and then we got in my mom’s “Blue Fuego” van. 

She said, “Off we go to Allenspark.” 

We replied, “Okay!” 

She started the van and took off.

The ride to Allenspark turned out to be a bumpy road. Then we got there mom my said, “Okay, let’s get out,” and we did.

We got out onto a dusty road and I said, “We have to hike that?!” 

My mom said, “Yep.”

We said, “Okay,”and hiked.

We hiked for a mile on the dusty road and on the way to the big,  blue, clear, lake, we saw trees, rocks, flowers, and birds. We took a shortcut through an aspen grove and got to the big lake. 

I said, “Can we go swimming?” 

My mom said, “Not yet.” Then my mom’s phone rang, “Jane and Mary are coming,” said mom. Jane and Mary were parents of some of the students. We hid in the rocks to surprise them. 

As we hid all of a sudden the trees started shaking like the tail of a rattlesnake. My mom held us back while she got closer to see what the shaking was. When she saw brown she said, “Is it a bear?” but then shouted, “It’s a moose with three babies!” 

Then my mom said, “Get back to the rocks!” because she wanted us to get away from the moose. One of my mom’s students, Audrey, said in a funny voice, “A baby moose!” 

My mom then said, “Ya” to Audrey  and then Jane and Mary arrived, but Mary had a dog! We were worried about the dog going after the babies and the mother moose would then trample the dog, and maybe us, to death because moose mothers with babies are as protective as a guard dog and very territorial.

Mary let her dog off the leash and my mom said, “There is a moose with three babies so can you please put your dog on the leash.” 

Mary yelled like a coyote yipping in the night, “You can’t control my dog!” She took her dog and left but the entire time the moose mother was watching the dog. 

Then, we had lunch, hot dogs! Everybody ran for the hot dogs like a stampede of wild buffalo. We all argued, “Me first! No me first,” for the hot dogs until Max, one of my mom’s oldest students said, “Guys, if you keep saying ‘me, me first’ then you will not get a hot dog.” After lunch we first made debris huts to learn how to survive in the night when you’re in the open. Debris huts are a shelter for surviving the night made out of sticks and logs in a survival situation.  We had to make debris huts to sleep in for the night or we would be sleeping crammed in one tent like in a beaver hut because beaver huts are really cramped.

Max said, “Good idea.” So we waded in the water and I caught a green slimy young tiger salamander that was like a slippery fish! Then we went back to camp and we put “Slimy,” the salamander in a jar to watch him swim.

Then we went on a hike and saw a hawk, five chipmunks (when I was little I used to call them “chickenmunks”), and four deer. Then we found a spot to sit still for a moment. Sitting still in nature is one of the things my mom loves to do with her SAP  students because it teaches them how to be more comfortable in nature and see more of it.SAP stands for Science Adventure Program.

 Just before dusk we took our sticks and went hunting one more time. We stood in the freezing cold water for twenty minutes and then I saw a great horned owl sitting in a tree. we raced around the bank of the lake to tell my mom about the great horned owl. Luckily as we sat in the freezing cold water my mom was making a fire. We told my mom about the great horned owl while warming up by the fire. The girls said, “Where is the great horned owl?” I pointed to the tree and said, “In that tree.” 

The girls then said, “Ohhhh, awesome.”

Right after we saw the great horned owl my mom yipped, “Dinner!”

Everybody ran to the fire and said, “Yay! I’m starving,” because we had a busy day and we had been waiting in the cold. So we ate and got ready for bed then in the middle of the night my mom heard hoof stamping, that she woke her up. Then she could feel her tent getting trampled and she dove out of the tent and ran to Jane’s tent. 

On the way she heard “Christina I’m scared.” So she went in the tent and grabbed Audrey and Hannah and brought them into Jane’s tent to be safe from the mother moose. Audrey was shaking but Hannah was fast asleep and slept through the whole night. The mother moose trampled my mom’s tent to be protective of the her babies. Luckily my mom jumped out just in time to survive the moose trampling her tent. 

In the morning we packed our bags, left for home and waited for the other students to get picked up. We talked about nothing but the moose mother all the way back to Boulder. We had a very exciting time in Allenspark! ———The End. 

October was Science Adventure Program's "Nature Photography Month" and we took pictures of everything from landscapes to portraits to elk. Photographer Nate Birnbaum helped the kids understand composition and lighting in photography, and we had a blast exploring to find great things to photograph. Along the way, we found bear scat, climbed trees, picked apples and made applesauce!