Mosaic Sundial Completed

Completing the sundial took a lot longer than expected. It was finally all in place, grouted and sealed, on July 31, 2011. Herre is Robyn sealing the grout. Yay!

Parent Work Day May 15

Sunday May 15 is our designated Parent Work Day for the Outdoor Classroom and the Sundial Mosaic.
Stop by anytime between 9am and 3pm to help create a garden, put flagstone in the kids' picnic table area, and put tiles on the mosaic sundial. This is a joint BCSIS-High Peaks event, so show up and support your school and get to know parents from the other side of the hallway!

We especially need stong people to move flagstone, so this is a great way for all those buff parents to help out. Kids are welcome to join us.
Please wear work clothes, gloves, a hat, sunscreen. Bring tools (shovel, trowel, crowbar, wheelbarrow) if you can.
Food and beverages will be available.

Fibonacci Series Rocks

Have you seen the big rock cluster on the grass of the Outdoor Classroom? They are clustered in a certain pattern...1,1,2,3,5 . This is the pattern of a Fibonacci Series. The series starts over by the Garden-to-Table Garden, and continues in an arch. Here's a teaching tool that is both subtle and very tactile/kinetic.

Well, the rocks are also great for sitting and climbing on. Or having tea like the Flintstones.

Flags on Poles

The colorful flags hung on the poles of the Useful Poles of the Outdoor Classroom are not intended to be a permanent installation. However, they give a hint of the uses which may be found for the poles. The poles may be used to conduct wind experiments; they may be used to display art or knitting samples. Who knows what our kids will come up with?
These flags were made by Robyn Churchill Rathweg, but future different flags may be created by a class. The Outdoor Classroom planners thought the flags were appropriate this spring, as they interact in a playful way with our sometimes odious Colorado Spring wind. These flags are hand printed with whimsical designs and inspirational sayings such as "Tis a gift to be Free" and "Peace" and "Beet Happy." Enjoy the dance.

Cafeteria Garden to be Renewed

One space that the schoolkids see every day needs a little TLC (tender Loving Care) The garden in front of the cafeteria, just to the left of the main entrance, has seen many incarnations over the years. It has been a perennial garden, a xeric garden, a garden full of sunflowers, mint and bindweed, and now a place with grass and rocks. The bond project which enhanced the school building was not always kind to the gardens, and this particular one lost roses, native shrubs, hardy perennials and ornamental grasses. BCSIS teacher Meaghan is inspired to recreate this garden and is gathering a group of parents and helpers to improve the site.

The new garden will look like a dry creek bed, with native shrubs, perennials and grasses. The garden will be a teaching spot, as students can study plants, watch the seasonal changes, and connect it to their studies of Colorado. Many of the plants of this garden are ones that have been used by Native Americans as herbs, medecines, food, and even soap...so children studying Native Americans may find it useful. All of us will find it delightful.

Isn't that NEAT!?!

Meghan would love to have helpers create this garden. You can help by buying snacks at the 2nd grade bakesale after school on Friday May 6.

If you would like to donate soil, river rocks, pea gravel, sturdy landscaping cloth, or native shrubs, please talk with Meaghan or Jane Blair.

We will probably work on the garden on the Parent Work Day (TBA).

Aurora 7 Renewable Energy Outdoor Classroom

by Beth Stade...
Some years ago, I attended a meeting of prominent local scientists to review the new Colorado Education Science Standards. As the committee reviewed a mountain of documents, a physicist from the University of Colorado was concerned that something important had been left out.

“What is it?” asked the state education directors, eager to add more requirements for moon phases or electrical currents.

“Where is the joy?” he replied.

“We don’t have a category for that,” answered the director, without a trace of irony.


Science is not a list of facts and procedures to be learned, it is the joyful curiosity of answering to the question “why?” and using our senses to understand the world around us.

The Renewable Energy Outdoor Classroom we are creating at Aurora 7, the shared campus of High Peaks Elementary and Boulder Community School of Integrated Studies, is an outdoor laboratory to explore science, nature, and renewable energy. At its heart will be a giant sundial of handmade tiles from all 600 students at the school. Among the rocks and seating boulders will be little exhibits that invite passersby to touch and explore. One of the most unique aspects of this outdoor classroom is that is purposefully unfinished. We won’t have wind power display, but we will have poles with connections for students to make models windmills every year. We won’t have a water feature, but we will have a solar powered water pump to make one. One of the best aspects of our solar panels is that they are NOT connected to the grid – they only work when the sun shines! The outdoor classroom is a place for children to explore while their big sister is playing soccer in the adjacent park, and a well-equipped space for teachers to run complex experiments that can’t be done indoors. It is designed to grow and change with school, not be a fixed monument.

The parents and teachers at the school began looking for creative ways to explore solar energy and outdoor science education several years ago. Parents at the school raised money through grants from GOCO Colorado (lottery funds), Lowes, Home Depot, and with donations from Resource, the Rocky Mountain Institute, and many volunteers. By supporting the Outdoor Classroom we will be able to incorporate even more resources into this dynamic space. We’d really love to add a kinetic wind sculpture for example, and provide additional materials for teachers.

Thank you for your support of this unique space, and we hope you will come check it out this summer!

Trees Galore

Renaud de Rosiers is a parent at BCSIS with a kindergarten student. He looked around the Aurora 7 schoolyard and saw few trees, and no mature trees at all. (Some big cottonwoods on the ground were lost a few years ago due to disease, and the bond project renovation of the building and playgrounds last year took out all but the smallest, youngest trees.) Renaud decided that he would work to have some trees on the A7 ground that were at least taller than him! He connected with Greg Jordan of "Tree Taxi of Longment," who has large trees that were available at a reasonable rate. Thanks to the hard work of this BCSIS parent, we have many large new trees to enjoy on the Aurora 7 grounds. Thanks, Renaud!

Here's High Peaks Principal's Assistant Michele, pretending she's a tree. Won't your arms get tired, Michele?

and now, that same spot, with a new tree. Thanks for standing in, Michele.

The newly planted trees include Golden Rain, Kentucky Coffee Tree, Ash, Canada Red Chokecherry, and Bur Oak. These are all well adapted to the Colorado climate and should provide beauty and shade for years to come.

Cement Poured...UH-OH!

The big cement truck was parked outside Aurora 7 this week. The construction workers brought the cement for the Outdoor Classroom. They worked on levelling it and smoothing it to make it beautiful.

Then some naughty wild animals ran across the cement...while it was STILL WET!

They left their foorprints all over the place.

Now it's too late, the cement has hardened.

See if you can peer through the fence and identify which critters were so bold...and ran all over our Outdoor Classroom!

Beth and her Wagon

Beth Stade is such an amazing parent. She helped write grants for the mosaic sundial and outdoor classroom, she has written proposals for funding and design, sat through dozens of meetings with everyone from architects to principals to construction crews and parents. She has shopped for well-priced rocks and sheds and envisioned an outdoor classroom where kids can learn using all of their sensed. She is kind of like the energizer bunny of school improvement here, folks. Here is a picture of her in action. She is moving these igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rock samples to the construction site to imbed them in the fresh concrete.

You Go Girl!

Moving Big Rocks at the Outdoor Classroom

What is happening behind all that chain-link fence?

Peer through and you can see the boulders that are going to be seating

for the Outdoor Classrooom.

Strange wooden shapes are forms for the cement that will become

tables, walkways, and also the base for the mosaic sundial.

And what is that shed for?

The shed is for storing tools and supplies

that teachers will use for classes at the Outdoor Classroom.

The construction crew might be using this huge auger

for making holes for the trees that will enhance the Classroom.

Or maybe it's just there to look really neat. What do you think?

Picnic Tables on Solid Ground

The outdoor tables so loved/used by the kids at the Aurora 7 schools are set in cement circles. This will help the tables stay even, not tipped to the side, as well as saving the kids (and their parents) from the eroded mud bogs that used to develop beneath the tables. We consider this part of the "Outdoor Classroom" because---having a good place to sit is important for enjoying the outdoor experience!

Outdoor Classroom Construction Begins March 16th!

[Sent out to BCSIS and HP parents]

As you will remember from earlier notices, High Peaks and BCSIS have been awarded a $100,000 grant for building a wonderful new outdoor classroom. This classroom will provide our students with ample opportunities to explore and learn about the environment, perform science projects, create castings, work with various power sources as well as many other instructional opportunities.

The impact that the construction will have on students is that starting tomorrow, Wednesday, March 16, the picnic tables will be pulled up. Children will not be able to eat outside on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Both schools, as well as the District are having the tables re-set with new cement bases around the tables. Hopefully, this will alleviate the mud and bumble bees hovering around puddles of water at the children’s feet.

Further impacts will be that the bike rack by the picnic tables will not be accessible as well as the walk through or ‘man gate’ on the west front fence. If you use the sidewalk in this area, please be careful of construction equipment and please, remind your children to look both ways before crossing in this area.

The construction of the picnic table bases will be completed when we return from spring break if the weather holds out over the next 15 days! While the majority of the construction on the outdoor classroom will be completed during spring break, it will take approximately 2-3 weeks to get it fully operational, again, a lot depends on the weather. As soon as we have a date for the opening of the outdoor classroom, we will let you know!

We want to take this opportunity to thank all of the wonderful parent volunteers who are making this classroom possible!

Outdoor Classroom article in Daily Camera

The Aurora 7 Outdoor Classroom Project was mentioned recently in an article in the Daily Camera. Click on the title of this post to link to the article.
Keep an eye on this blog for more information about the classroom in the local news.

Thanks to Muscle Crew for moving granite slab

We had a great group of willing workers who showed up last week to move a large slab of granite that we will be using in the Outdoor Classroom. The granite was generously donated by ReSource Yard http://www.resourceyard.org/, and will be used for a work table for teachers at the Outdoor Classroom. Thanks to everyone who pitched in!

Unloading Granite Tabletop at School

The Muscle Team will be unloading granite near the dumpsters at school on Thursday, March 10, at 2:45 pm.

Welcome

Welcome to the blog for information about the creation of the Aurora 7 Outdoor Classroom and Interactive Sundial Mosaic.