Nature Connection, Action, and Hope
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A collaboration between Growing Up Boulder (GUB), Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP), Classrooms for Climate Action (C4CA), Utilities' Stormwater and Flood Management departments and Boulder Valley School District (BVSD)'s sixty-six 4th graders and teachers at Columbine Elementary School, the Nature Connection, Action, and Hope (NCAH) project builds upon the successful integration of curriculum, outdoor learning and youth leadership/action (service learning + stewardship activities) learned from the Wood Brothers Project (2020). The project immerses young people in weekly lessons on nature connection and stewardship, ecology, Indigenous Knowledges, climate change, and climate justice. It also operationalizes Professor Louise Chawla’s paper on childhood nature connection and constructive hope.
The Nature Connection, Action, and Hope project provides the opportunity to hear diverse youth voice in:
The 4th grade BVSD Science, Social Studies, and Health classes integrated the Colorado Landscapes Unit, which the OSMP Education team co-created with BVSD educators last summer, to provide the curricular connection for this participatory engagement and act as a model for BVSD curriculum and OSMP educational services. The opportunity to work with GUB and BVSD last fall deepened this community project and provided valuable information for this replicable model to continue into the following years. |