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CU Museum of Natural History Discovery Kits

Bring Museum objects to your classroom with our Discovery Kits

The University of Colorado Museum loans portable kits for in-class and home use. Discovery Kits are carry-on sized suitcases and contain authentic museum specimens, casts, models, and activity ideas. The kits can be used as a free-standing study unit or as pre- and/or post-visit activities when combined with a trip to the Museum. Kits are available for a rental fee of $10/week.

Bats – Learn about the fascinating bat and the roles it plays in the ecosystem.

Insects – Explore the structure, life cycle, and adaptations of insects.

Owls – Investigate North American owls and their prey.

Raptors – Study North American birds of prey, including hawks, owls and eagles.

Colorado Mammals – Examine Colorado mammals including herbivores, carnivores, and a marsupial.

Native Peoples – Explore Native American cultures through ancient and modern objects.

Dinosaurs – Learn about the “terrible lizards” of the past.

Fossils of the West – Investigate different types of plant and animal fossils.

Fossils in the Classroom – A new hands-on kit featuring real and cast fossils, tools, and five in-class lesson plans specifically designed to address the new Colorado Academic Standard on fossils.

The iShare Discovery Kits. Learn about the Paiwan – a native people of Taiwan – and the Navajo – a native people from the U. S. – through two new Discovery Kits featuring hands-on objects, interactive media, and teacher guides.

CU Museum of Natural History Hands-on Workshops

Hands-on Workshops
Hands-on workshops are designed as sit-down, hands-on, in-depth learning experiences offered in conjunction with guided programs. A hands-on workshop is a content-rich, stand-alone experience; Pairing a guided program and hands-on workshop together provides a wonderful, two hour in-depth, enjoyable educational experience for students.

• Pottery of the Prehistoric Southwest Workshop (recommended for 3rd – 5th grades)
Learn the steps of ancient pottery making and examine prehistoric pottery designs and shapes as students create their own pot to take home.

• Fossils: Clues to the Past Workshop (recommended for 3nd – 5th grades)
Discover different types of fossils and investigate how plants and animals become fossilized. Students use paleontology tools to excavate their own fossil to take home.

• Animal Adaptation Workshop (recommended for 3rd – 5th grades)
Explore skulls, scat, and tracks to learn about the characteristics, adaptations, and variation of Colorado animals. Students make their own plaster animal track to take home.

CU Museum of Natural History Guided Programs

Guided Programs
Guided programs are designed as interactive and hands-on learning experiences based on museum exhibits, where students use objects, inquiry, and critical thinking skills to discover, wonder, and reflect. A guided program is a content-rich, stand-alone experience; Pairing a guided program and hands-on workshop together provides a wonderful, two hour in-depth, enjoyable educational experience for students.

Guided Programs:

• Discover Native Americans (recommended for preK – 2nd grades)
Discover the prehistoric Native Americans of Southwest Colorado through observing, matching, comparing, and sorting. This program includes time to explore the Museum’s Discovery Corner.

• Discover Fossils (recommended for preK – 2nd grades)
Discover different types of fossils and prehistoric plants and animals through observing, identifying, and comparing. This program includes time to explore the Museum’s Discovery Corner.

• Insect Explorers (recommended for 2nd – 3rd grades)
Explore the structure and life cycle of insects, focusing on beetles, grasshoppers, and bees. This program is part guided exploration of the exhibits and part hands-on workshop.

• Early Native Peoples of Colorado (recommended for 3rd – 5th grades)
Discover and explore the diverse and unique life ways, landscape, and objects of the Ancestral Pueblo peoples (Anasazi) of southwest Colorado and the Four Corners area in this hands-on, station-based guided program.

• Fossils: Evidence of Past Life (recommended for 3rd – 5th grades)
What can we learn from fossils? What do they tell us about past life? Learn how fossil plants and animals reveal clues to the past and explore how life has changed over time in this hands-on, station-based guided program.

• Adaptation and Variation: Colorado Animals and Plants (recommended for 3rd – 5th grades)
How do different animals adapt to their environment? What are ways we classify plants and animals? Explore the structure and function, interaction and interdependence of life all around us in this hands-on, station-based guided program.

• Stories from the Collection (recommended for 6th – 12th grades, and adults)
The CU Museum has the largest natural history collection in the Rocky Mountain region with more than four million objects. Learn the stories behind some of the highlights of the collection in this hands-on, interactive exploration of the Museum.

Cottonwood Institute Mini-Community Adventure Program (Mini-CAP)

The Community Adventure Program (CAP) is the core educational program of the Cottonwood Institute and a unique environmental education class offered for academic credit. For the Mini-CAP program we have adapted our original course to fit a shorter time frame. Many aspects of this course are flexible to suit the schedule and needs of your school or organization. During this 4-6-week class, students will go on hikes, at leat 1 overnight camping trip, learn about and discuss local environmental issues, choose an issue to address as a class, and collaborate with other local organizations to design and implement a student-directed Action Project to positively address their issue. This class broadens the concepts of community within and outside of the classroom. It teaches how to be hopeful in the face of environmental changes that often seem daunting and embrace the importance of the natural world around us. Students will learn about how to work together, what it means to be a leader and a follower and how to make meaningful change in their own lives and their communities.

The curriculum of the Community Adventure Program has two distinct, but intertwining phases:

1. Environmental Education: CI believes that students can’t be expected to care about the environment if they never have a chance to explore the outdoors. Students spend approximately half of their time learning essential outdoor skills to acquire the basics necessary to comfortably and competently explore the outdoors. Below is a sample of some of the summer and winter skills that students become competent in through their participation with the CAP:

• Nature awareness, including: Wide angle vision, animal stalking techniques, nature sketching, journaling, camouflage techniques, nature awareness activities, local cultural history, local natural history, plant identification, edible and medicinal plants, etc.
• Essential camping skills, including: Minimum impact camping, campsite location, modern tents, food and ration planning, outdoor cooking, food hanging, ecologically responsible fires, map, compass, route selection, and backcountry navigation, etc.
• 3-season wilderness survival skills, including: Survival scenarios, survival priorities, survival kits, natural shelters, 1-match fires, cotton ball striker fires, friction fires, etc.
• Winter camping skills, including: Thermodynamics and heat loss, winter gear and equipment, snowshoeing, quinzhees, emergency snow shelters, basic avalanche awareness, etc.
• Leadership and teambuilding skills

2. Environmental Service-Learning: While students are exploring the outdoors, they will become intimately involved with their community by researching local outdoor and environmental issues that directly relate to the skills they are learning. Students participate in Socratic Seminars to discuss these issues, conduct research and contact community experts, and then work together as a class to address the problems they have identified. They will then complete an environmental Action Project to help make a positive impact in their community by implementing the following 10-step process:

• Step 1: Explore the community
• Step 2: Identify the issues
• Step 3: Select an issue
• Step 4: Understand issue
• Step 5: Collaborate with the community
• Step 6: Create a sustainable solution
• Step 7: Plan the Action Project
• Step 8: Implement the Plan
• Step 9: Complete post Action Project logistics
• Step 10: Evaluate, reflect, celebrate, and share their experience

For more information please visit: www.cottonwoodinstitute.org

CAP is an ongoing program designed for middle school and high school students. The curriculum is based on at least 6 contact hours over the course of a 4-6 week block. For longer courses see our CAP resource description.

Cottonwood Institute Community Adventure Program (CAP)

The Community Adventure Program (CAP) is the core educational program of the Cottonwood Institute and a unique environmental education class offered for academic credit. During this 8-12-week class, students will go on hikes, 2 overnight camping trips, learn about and discuss local environmental issues, choose an issue to address as a class, and collaborate with other local organizations to design and implement a student-directed Action Project to positively address their issue. This class broadens the concepts of community within and outside of the classroom. It teaches how to be hopeful in the face of environmental changes that often seem daunting and embrace the importance of the natural world around us. Students will learn about how to work together, what it means to be a leader and a follower and how to make meaningful change in their own lives and their communities.

The curriculum of the Community Adventure Program has two distinct, but intertwining phases:

1. Environmental Education: CI believes that students can’t be expected to care about the environment if they never have a chance to explore the outdoors. Students spend approximately half of their time learning essential outdoor skills to acquire the basics necessary to comfortably and competently explore the outdoors. Below is a sample of some of the summer and winter skills that students become competent in through their participation with the CAP:

• Nature awareness, including: Wide angle vision, animal stalking techniques, nature sketching, journaling, camouflage techniques, nature awareness activities, local cultural history, local natural history, plant identification, edible and medicinal plants, etc.
• Essential camping skills, including: Minimum impact camping, campsite location, modern tents, food and ration planning, outdoor cooking, food hanging, ecologically responsible fires, map, compass, route selection, and backcountry navigation, etc.
• 3-season wilderness survival skills, including: Survival scenarios, survival priorities, survival kits, natural shelters, 1-match fires, cotton ball striker fires, friction fires, etc.
• Winter camping skills, including: Thermodynamics and heat loss, winter gear and equipment, snowshoeing, quinzhees, emergency snow shelters, basic avalanche awareness, etc.
• Leadership and teambuilding skills

2. Environmental Service-Learning: While students are exploring the outdoors, they will become intimately involved with their community by researching local outdoor and environmental issues that directly relate to the skills they are learning. Students participate in Socratic Seminars to discuss these issues, conduct research and contact community experts, and then work together as a class to address the problems they have identified. They will then complete an environmental Action Project to help make a positive impact in their community by implementing the following 10-step process:

• Step 1: Explore the community
• Step 2: Identify the issues
• Step 3: Select an issue
• Step 4: Understand issue
• Step 5: Collaborate with the community
• Step 6: Create a sustainable solution
• Step 7: Plan the Action Project
• Step 8: Implement the Plan
• Step 9: Complete post Action Project logistics
• Step 10: Evaluate, reflect, celebrate, and share their experience

For more information please visit: www.cottonwoodinstitute.org

CAP is an ongoing program designed for middle school and high school students. The curriculum is based on at least 4 contact hours a week over the course of a semester or quarter long block. For shorter courses see our Mini-CAP resource description.

Eco-Cycle Rainforest and Recycling--(K-2nd) (Boulder County Public Schools only)

The ecology of the rainforest and the challenges it faces are discovered through the gentle story of The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry. Props and a game teach about tropical animals and plants, the importance of the rainforest in our lives and what we can do to protect it.

Eco-Cycle Ready, Set, Recycle! (Boulder County Public Schools only)

pre-school

Eco-Cycle Solid Waste Dilemma and Papermaking(Boulder and Broomfield Counties Public Schools only)

Don’t just recycle – precycle! Students will learn the environmental benefits of reducing waste and compare different product choices found in a typical grocery store. Proper recycling will be covered, along with fun examples of what our old bottles, cans and paper are turned into. A papermaking activity will allow students to make more connections between natural resources and recycling, and get to take home a piece of hand-made paper!

Eco-Cycle Recycling Process and Papermaking (Boulder County Public Schools only)

Did you know that recycling paper uses only 1/2 as much energy as making
it from trees? Or that new carpet can be made from soda pop bottles? Students
will learn the what’s, why’s and how’s of recycling through interactive discussion,
visual aides and a slide show. And, it’s all hands on desk, er…deck, for
papermaking, as the final activity.

From Our Lands To Your Hands - Youth Expo

This expo is an invitation only program for fourth grade students to provide information on where food comes from and why agriculture is important in their everyday lives. The expo is provided in Longmont at the Boulder County Fairgrounds Exhibit Building in February. An additional expo has been added in Boulder at the Career and Tech Center on Arapahoe in October. If you would like you class to be able to attend either of the expos you can contact the Conservation District office or watch a video available on our website at www.longmontcd.org under education.

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