By the Mackintosh Academy Middle Years Program (MYP) Faculty
Did you know?
- Animals migrate horizontally as well as vertically
- Owls grow feathers to protect their talons
- At -40 degrees it is too cold to snow
- To build a fire you need tinder, kindling, wristwood, and bulkwood.
If you had joined Mackintosh Boulder and Littleton Middle Years students during their winter trip to Cal-Wood Education Center, you would.
Last week in the beautiful countryside above Jamestown, Colorado, Mack seventh and eighth graders and teachers from both campuses joined together to engage in an extended natural science lesson as well as a community-building initiative. After working collaboratively for two days—hiking, observing nature, studying properties of snow, discussing winter survival skills, and drilling through a frozen pond to determine the health of marine life after the flood, our students gained a first-hand understanding of the ecology of the Colorado foothills environment.
Some key learnings outside of academics included knowing when to ask for help, when to speak up, when to listen, how to stay organized, learning to take risks, and how to work together as a team. A night hike through a moon-transformed landscape, games of tag that demonstrated the ebb and flow of coyote and rabbit populations, and an extended telephone-type communication game rounded out our two-day rich and rewarding experience.
We were fortunate to be the first group to return to Cal-Wood’s bucolic 1200-acre setting after the devastating floods that hit this area in September and to benefit from the efforts of Cal-Wood’s energetic and well-informed staff and the ongoing investment of our spirited middle schoolers. All would agree that this was an educational and personal highpoint of the school year and certainly one that deserves to be repeated.
