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News and Updates

2019 Western Rivers Teacher Workshops

4/25/2019

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Monday - Friday, June 10-14, 2019
Western State Colorado University, Gunnison, Colorado

Utilize western rivers to meet interdisciplinary academic standards creating relevant place based context for your students.
​Register through the Extended Studies program. 
See last year's participant reflections, photos, and more here. 

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River as Text: Ecology (3 days)
Monday-Wednesday June 10-12, 2019, 2 credit course
Learn how to utilize rivers and riparian habitat as the context to meet your curriculum through observations, explorations, discussions, and journaling to create student-centered learning experiences. During this field-based course, participants will explore the three major components of a river ecosystem: aquatic life, water quality, and riparian habitat. Inter-disciplinary field experiences include field trips to local riverside parks, Roaring Judy Fish Hatchery, and Curecanti National Recreation Area. Participants will also create an online Google My Maps river field trip asset map for their school. Physical ability to walk across uneven terrain, stand for long durations, and carry equipment is highly suggested. ​

Water in the West (2 days)
​Thursday-Friday June 13-14, 2019, 1 credit course
Learn how to incorporate the complexities of water management in the West into your curriculum through cross-curricular field and classroom activities and routines. Using questioning, observing, and reflecting routines participants will explore western water management, water law, and watershed geography. Participants will also create an ESRI Story Map using online GIS tools to explore and explain water management concepts and corresponding geography more closely. Field experiences include a Blue Mesa Dam visit, a visit to Taylor Reservoir, and time at Gunnison Mountain Park. Physical ability to walk across uneven terrain and stand for long durations is highly suggested. 

Insiders Tips
1. If you sign up with a group by May 17 everyone gets a discounted rate, up to four people from your school district. 
2. Western State makes the dormitories available during the workshops at a very affordable rate for lodging. 
3. Childcare is available at the Tenderfoot Child and Family Development Center during the courses. 

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Wild Rose Education to Present at Colorado Trout Unlimited Rendezvous

4/17/2019

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We are proud to be presenting at the 2019 Colorado Trout Unlimited Annual Rendezvous April 26-28 at the Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. We will be sharing proven best practices for developing nonformal river education programs and how to do community engagement well in local river education programming. 

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Community Engagement: How Do We Do it Well?
poster session, Saturday evening, April 27
Learn about the new Community Engagement Guidelines for Excellence, a free robust accessible publication of best practices, practical tools, and case studies for working in partnership with your community to strengthen the underpinnings of environmental quality and community well-being. The Guidelines offer proven strategies for developing stronger social equity, shared prosperity, and the capacity to pursue these goals together within the local community.

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How to Get Started Creating New River Education Programs
mini-workshop, Saturday April 27, 9:45am-10:45am
Do you want to develop new (or improved) river and water education programs for your organization with the best  planning, executing, and evaluating best practices from the environmental education field? This fast paced mini workshop will introduce participants to the program development cycle including needs assessment, program design and delivery, and evaluation. Participants will leave with access to the free publication: Nonformal Environmental Education Programs: Guidelines for Excellence.

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Mobile Observatory Coming to Town

3/5/2019

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The Mobile Earth + Space Observatory (MESO) is coming to Carbondale Middle School in March to present an environmental education program on The Importance of Water, thanks to a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. MESO, a science center on wheels, will be parked at Carbondale Middle School for the week of March 11-15, providing an assembly program for all of the school’s 300+ students, and inquiry-based classroom activities for the eighth grade classes. Students will interact with scientist educators from the National Space Science & Technology Institute (NSSTI) as they explore topics and engage in learning that augments the school’s curriculum on the water cycle, watersheds, water purification, and water conservation.
After school, MESO staff will be available for students to further explore Earth & space science using telescopes and other scientific instrumentation. In the evening on March 14, MESO will be open to the public, allowing students’ families and friends to visit and participate in celestial observing. The week will culminate in a “Puddle Palooza” Science Festival on March 14th at 6:30pm for community members to experience highlights of the program presented to students during the week and visit with community partners who deal with water issues and concerns.
This visit has been a year in the making, as school staff and NSSTI planned hands-on scientific inquiry to allow students to experience first-hand what it is to be a scientist. Wild Rose Education's Youth Water Leadership Program and Carbondale Middle School Science faculty and administrators have coordinated with the NSSTI staff to integrate MESO in the school’s schedule this week, and invite community participation in the Thursday night event highlighting the week-long focus on water.
“The program is designed to reach students who might not otherwise have access to the scientists and scientific instrumentation provided by the MESO,” said Robert Sallee, Chairman of the NSSTI Board of Directors. “We want to engage and excite students, and motivate them to pursue additional education in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects leading to careers in the technology workforce.” “This project will engage middle school students in learning and research in vital environmental issues relating to our Colorado water supplies with an emphasis on community-based concerns,” Sallee said. “The educational programs have been created to be consistent with Colorado science education standards and build upon curricula and activities currently in place.”
Carbondale Middle School is one of five middle schools across Colorado selected to participate in this program, which is being piloted to verify the efficacy of the mobile STEM lab as a vehicle for motivating students to learn and do research in the Earth and space sciences. Recognizing that many schools do not have the financial resources to acquire sophisticated scientific equipment, NSSTI is awarding each school a $4,550 sub-grant to fund purchase of the scientific instrumentation needed to support on-going student research and costs of participating in this project.
In addition to the MESO water week, the science teachers at Carbondale Middle School have participated in GLOBE training so that their students can collect real science data which is entered in an international database and used for numerous research projects. “The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program is an international science and education program that provides students and the public worldwide with the opportunity to participate in data collection and the scientific process, and contribute meaningfully to our understanding of the Earth system and global environment.” (from www.globe.gov)
Also, NSSTI is providing Carbondale teachers with the opportunity to involve their classes in a distance learning program that connects them via computer to scientists who can discuss the relevance of what they are studying to the lives and wellbeing of people in their community and in other communities.
Dimitri Klebe, PhD, NSSTI President and Principal Investigator for this project, said the goals of the project are to increase student and community understanding and appreciation of the importance of hydrological systems in their communities; how these systems are affected by human influences and climate change; and how these hydrological systems fit into the global picture. This will promote environmental stewardship and increase everyone’s capacity for informed decision-making about water issues on both local and global scales.
“We are bringing together scientist-educators and community organizations to resource teachers and students to do actual research around local community water concerns,” Klebe said. “As a result, students will see the applicability of science to their communities and how community concerns relate to larger regional, national, and international concerns,” Klebe said.

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This was partially made possible by these generous 2019 Youth Water Leadership Program sponsors. 
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Students Take the Lead On River Issues

11/19/2018

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2018 Year in Review

Wild Rose Education’s Youth Water Leadership Program™ mission is to create authentic student-centered learning experiences that increase watershed literacy through civic action. During 2018, the program reached 646 student contacts ages sixth grade-college in three program areas during 94 hours of experiential learning.
  • 5 Lens on Climate Change Filmmaker Teams
  • 4 films: Our Lives Our River, Out of Balance, Streamflow on the Crystal, and Grass Skis selected for 2019 Colorado Environmental Film Festival
  • 16 Field Trips and Classroom Visits
  • 1 Youth Water Summit

Growth and Expansion of Youth Water Leadership Programâ„¢

Exciting growth occurred during 2018, the second year of this signature YWLP program. Hosting the CIRES Lens on Climate Change film making program, creating branding, convening the Summit Leader Team, mentoring senior capstone students, hosting a day long youth water summit, and employing a program intern significantly increased the program’s capacity and impact. In addition to the founding sponsor, Pitkin County Healthy Rivers, 10 additional generous financial sponsors made this expanded programming possible. Finally, utilizing the collaborative support of 20 partner organizations made this year’s YWLP more effective, meaningful, and fun.
Read the new Youth River Voices blog where water, river, and climate change youth leaders give voice to the most important issues of today
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2nd Annual Healthy Rivers Youth Water Summit
November 15, 2018, Third Street Center, Carbondale, CO
This student-driven educational conference was an opportunity for learning, dialogue, and action on local watershed issues. Students presented their call-to-action research projects and proposed evidence-based solutions to environmental issues within the local watershed. This year’s event included:
  • 20 student presentations and films
  • 2 keynote speakers
  • 6 Summit Leader Team members
  • 10 student-determined topic group discussions
  • 14 Opportunity Expo presenters
  • 5 interactive activities
  • 1 Watershed Trivia Game
  • 125 burritos
Healthy Rivers Youth Water Summit 2018
Watch the student presentations below
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The Third Street Center 501(c)3 is the fiscal agent for the Youth Water Leadership Program.
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Seeing Things Whole: John Wesley Powell and an Understanding of the American West

10/8/2018

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Wednesday, November 14, 2018, 6pm, Pitkin County Building, Main Street, Aspen
Thursday, November 15, 6pm, Third Street Center, 520 S. Third Street, Carbondale

Join Grand Canyon rafting guide, paleontologist, and author Christa Sadler for her talk about John Wesley Powell the man, the scientist, the explorer and visionary policy-maker with excerpts from her new book “The Colorado” on Wednesday, November 14th at 6 pm at the Pitkin County Administration and Sheriff’s Office BOCC meeting room 530 E. Main Street in Aspen and again in Carbondale on November 15th at 6pm at the Third Street Center.  Free. Sponsored by Pitkin County Healthy Rivers and Wild Rose Education.
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Interviews with Christa
  • Aspen Public Radio Interview (7 min)
  • KDNK Valley Voices with Amy Hadden Marsh (25 min)
  • KDNK News (4 min)
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John Wesley Powell recognized inherent problems in our vision of settlement of the West more than a century ago, and his prescient ideas may help guide us into the future. Join author and river guide Christa Sadler as she discusses John Wesley Powell the man, the scientist, the explorer, and the visionary policy maker from her new book The Colorado, about the human relationship with the Colorado River Basin. 

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Although most people are familiar with John Wesley Powell as the intrepid one-armed Civil War veteran who became the first European to explore the canyons of the Colorado and Green Rivers in 1869 and again in 1871-72, it is the work that Powell did following his epic journeys for which he truly should be famous. Powell understood the challenges of life in a land of little water like few others of his time, and his ideas for settlement of this region were visionary. As water becomes scarcer and more precious in the West, Powell’s ideas may provide valuable guidance for water managers at all levels in the coming decades. 

The Colorado River Basin is one of the driest river basins in the world, yet it has nonetheless birthed extraordinary landscapes and entire civilizations. The waters of this desert basin now support more than 40 million people—more than 10% of the country’s population depends in part or entirely on the waters of the Colorado River and its tributaries. The Colorado examines nine episodes in the history of our interaction with the Colorado River, from early prehistoric cultures to the Spanish explorations of the lower reaches of the river, the dam building frenzy of the early and middle 20th century, industrial agriculture and the current use of water throughout the region. This book provides important history and context to one of the country’s most important—and most endangered—watersheds. 

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AUTHOR BIO
As a rafting guide on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon and elsewhere in the region, Christa Sadler has called the rivers of the Colorado River Basin home for more than three decades. She holds a Masters Degree in Earth sciences and paleontology from Northern Arizona University and a Bachelor's Degree in physical anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley. Christa has been writing and teaching in the landscapes shaped by the Colorado River since 1988 and has published several books and articles about the region. She can be contacted at www.thisearthpress.com. ​​
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New River Training Center Offers Excellence in Innovation and Professional Learning

9/4/2018

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Wild Rose Education is joining the River Management Society (RMS) education team rolling out the new River Training Center in October 2018. The River Training Center vision is to be the leader of innovation, professional learning, and best practices for river professionals who study, protect, and manage North America's rivers.
Wild Rose Education contributes expertise in adult education, training strategies, and river education techniques to the development of this new training and certification program. 
The RMS River Training Center hosts the first Instructor Certification Orientation Workshop in conjunction with the Wild, Scenic and Beyond! River Management Symposium in Vancouver, Washington with a half day workshop October 22, 2018. 
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Serving North America's eePro Community

8/28/2018

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Sarah Johnson has recently been selected to serve the North American Association for Environmental Education's eePro community as a moderator of the Guidelines for Excellence Group. She will grow the online community of practitioners and leaders in environmental education sharing resources, discussing and asking questions about how members are utilizing the Guidelines for Excellence and other innovative best practices that incorporate the Guidelines and professionalize the field of EE, and celebrating the excellent work members are doing across North America and beyond. 
All are invited to join the free eePro professional platform hosting a wide spectrum of environmental education interests. Upon creating a free account, you can join as many eePro groups as you'd like. 
Sarah is co-moderating the professional community alongside Bora Simmons and Renee Strnad who are all three members and leaders in the Guidelines for Excellence Trainers Bureau. 
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Guidelines for Excellence
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Celebrating 2nd Annual Western Rivers Teacher Workshop

6/29/2018

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Eighteen educators from across Colorado, Nebraska, and Nevada convened for a River Ecology and Water Management courses during the 2nd annual Western Rivers Teacher Workshop during Western State Colorado University's Summer Teacher Institute in June 2018. 
Western Rivers Teacher Workshops

Reflections from Participants

  • Never underestimate the power of giving your students a voice and a magnifying glass!
  • I feel that this class was helpful to me by giving me more knowledge, ideas, and empowerment to lead students in outdoor science experiences myself.  I feel that this class gave me more tools that I could use to creatively teach many different science standards outdoors, particularly about rivers and streams.
  • This course left me with more questions than answers, which is a very good thing from my social science perspective. The content and discussion will continue to inform the questions and perspectives I explore personally, as well as shape the strategies and activities I employ as an educator.
  • I became a better observer by the sustained practice of looking closely and thoughtfully at my environment, but in this class I learned more about how to help my students become better observers.   
  • The teaching strategies that were used in this class were good models of teaching strategies that I can use for my students who are learning English as a second language, whether in science or in another subject.  
  • I think that what I learned in this class will help me better consider and articulate what all students need to be curious and inquisitive learners.
  • I will remember that it is most important to instill an intrinsic love of learning and active curiosity,  rather than teaching students that their job as learners is to find a right answer.
  • I feel I gained such new understanding about macro-invertebrates through the way Sarah intentionally led us through the process of exploring, observing, asking questions, making connections, discovering scientific mysteries, and making evidence based explanations...
  • One of the most significant insights that I come away with is not only giving students time to observe the natural world but teaching them how to observe the natural world.
  • My ways of teaching students about the river have changed after taking this class.
  • The course made me think about our water differently and what I can do to help conserve and teach others about the importance of our water.
  • After this course I have come to see that we live in an arid west and because of many things, water is being used up. I need to be even more intentional about the way I think about and use water.
  • I will start with myself and thinking about how I can help. Then, I will teach my students the facts and encourage them to look past themselves and into the solution. One small stone thrown into a lake creates a ripple that continues over the surface of the lake. My goal is to create a lot of ripples because my students know the facts and have a heart to help.

Participant Feedback

  • I felt the class (instructor) did an excellent job of bridging the gaps and providing valuable insights, resources, and activities for any type of teacher in any environment.
  • Outstanding field trips and impressive, compelling speakers. Wow! 
  • Instruction was intentionally well-modeled, engaging, and hands-on, providing many ready-to-go classroom activities, and a variety of resources and lesson ideas.
  • The workshop has helped me realize how to make my classes student-centered.
  • The workshop information was mostly appropriate for students I teach and I felt I left with projects I could use immediately (mapping water basins, relief maps, buckets, vocabulary list, and a deeper understanding of local water issues).
  • The class is so applicable to living here in southern Nevada.
  • Excellent use of pedagogy, content, and discussion! VERY applicable for teachers!
  • I really enjoyed all aspects of the class, even those that I didn't see a direct path for what I teach. It was nice to participate with a group of experienced teachers and hear their perspectives on the activities and lessons we learned.
  • This class emphasized the process of science and the need for curiosity in learning.
  • I'm looking forward to showing the kids the story map program so that they can use it in the class.

Participants' Story Maps

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View Youth-made Climate Change Films

6/21/2018

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The student made films from the Lens on Climate Change Program are now available to be viewed and shared. 

Thanks again to CIRES, University of Colorado Office of Outreach and Engagement, and the Colorado Film School for bringing their program on the road to Carbondale reaching 20 local middle and high school students during the 6 day free workshop at the Third Street Center. 

The films will be screened during the 2018 Healthy Rivers Youth Water Summit and also submitted to the Colorado Environmental Film Festival. 

Thanks to Sponsors and Community Partners

Special thanks to all who made the Lens on Climate Change program possible in Carbondale, Colorado including: Community Office for Resource Efficiency, Third Street Center, CLEER, Solar Rollers, and Two Rivers Unitarian Universalists.

Career Panel 
  • Ellie Barber, Aspen Global Change Institute
  • Morgan Hill, Garfield County Public Health
  • Ali O’Neil, Evergreen Zero Waste
  • Haley Thompson, filmmaker
  • Sarah Uhl, artist, joy evangelist
Community Experts
  • Jake DeWolf, Colorado Division of Water Resources
  • Matt Hamilton, Aspen Skiing Company
  • Kevin Horch, Sunlight Ski and Bike Shop
  • Dave Kanzer, Colorado River District
  • Brook Levan, Sustainable Settings
  • Liz Mauro, Pitkin County Landfill
  • Heather Tattersall-Lewin, Roaring Fork Conservancy
  • Aaron Taylor, Way of Compassion Bike Project
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Youth Designed Logos for Youth Water Leadership Program

6/5/2018

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Now in the program's second year, we are excited to share the new logos for the Youth Water Leadership Program and the local Healthy Rivers Youth Water Summit in the Roaring Fork Watershed. Designed by a local college student these two bright youthful marks are distinct yet closely related and elevate the program and its future expansion.  
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Meet the Designer: Olivia Koski
In the spirit of the Youth Water Leadership Program, it is a priority to highlight the work of local youth. In this case we did not only highlight, we hired Olivia Koski and she delivered a very professional design process and quality final product while also adding these pieces to her own portfolio of work.
Olivia is currently a student in Colorado Mountain College's New Media program where she studies graphic design. Olivia grew up in the Roaring Fork Valley and currently lives outside of Carbondale, Colorado. 
We look forward to hiring her again: Olivia Jo Design & Studio
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© 2022  Sarah R. Johnson LLC D.B.A. Wild Rose Education. All Rights Reserved. Carbondale, Colorado 
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  • Home
  • About
  • Workshops and Trainings
    • Curiosity and Wonder Project
    • Leave No Trace Trainer Course
    • Public Lands of the USA Course
  • Arctic
    • Arctic Girls Science
  • Climate Action
  • News
    • Arctic Ruminations
    • Wild Rose Blog
    • Youth River Voices
  • Contact