Nature Connection, Action, and Hope 

Nature Connection, Action and Hope Project Final Report
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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: 

1. Learning how youth want to take action/care for their local environment, 
2. Providing relevant communications and strategies to inspire hope in a changing climate (both educating and hearing from students),
3. Creating a meaningful connection to the community beyond the school classroom (for example, by participating in the Right Here, Right Now Climate Summit at University of Colorado at Boulder from Dec 1-4, 2022). 

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. 

C4CA Curriculm Model

 Right Here Right Now Global Climate Summit

Columbine Elementary School 4th graders were awarded the amazing opportunity to showcase their flood mitigation models at University of Colorado at Boulder's Right Here Right Now Global Climate Summit.  ​

Image by Cliff Grassmick, Staff Photographer for Daily Camera

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Share-Out At Columbine

On December 6 - 8, 2022, Columbine 4th graders demonstrated acquired knowledge through student-led presentations for community and city stakeholders at Columbine Elementary School.  Through the youth-led, bilingual presentations, young people expressed their newfound climate knowledge and presented flood mitigation models. 

The Daily Camera Article