EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
                     -Intermediate School

Bridal Veil Basin Backpacking Excursion
In September 2004, Mountain School 7th - 11th graders spent a week exploring the history, geology and ecology of Bridal Veil Basin above the Town of Telluride. Students and their instructors camped at Blue Lake while learning about the formation of the San Juan Mountains, discovering how certain animals adapted to life in the cold and tracing the flow of water through the basin to the historic hydroelectric Power Station. Students touched upon the rich history of mining in the basin and wrote stories about what it would have been like to be a miner toiling in the mines a century ago. The week culminated with Power Station owner Eric Jacobson's captivating lecture on the deck of the station and a tour of the working facility. Upon returning to school, students prepared a PowerPoint presentation for the entire school community.

Dark Canyon, Utah
The 7th and 8th grade class headed to Dark Canyon for a 2,000 foot descent and 5-day backpacking trip in early November 2004. Dark Canyon, considered by many to be one of Utah's most beautiful and least visited canyon systems, was home and classroom for five days of integrated field studies. During this time the class explored the canyon's rim for evidence of Anasazi, conducted stream flow studies on the canyon floor and examined the 300 million year-old limestone that formed the walls of our temporary home.

Days were filled with spectacular hikes, research projects and sketching. Nights were dedicated to journaling in the tents by headlamp, reading stories around a campfire and stargazing. The trip provided context for the science class' desert ecology unit, created opportunities for students to apply their drawing skills to a new landscape, and served as an introduction to extended backcountry travel. The students also learned to work together as a team to take care of their basic needs of food, water, shelter and friendship.

Alta Lakes Observatory

For three days in late January, Telluride Mountain School 7 th -11 th grade students traded pencils and calculators for avalanche beacons, Nordic skis and field notebooks as they completed a Level I Avalanche course at the nearby Alta Lakes Observatory.  In addition to studying the basics of mountain weather, snow metamorphism and avalanche rescue, students also learned to identify avalanche terrain and test the snowpack for stability. While most of the three-day trip was dedicated to the study of avalanches, students also found time to read the short stories of Hemingway, cook delicious meals and enjoy friendship and camaraderie in the warmth of a rustic mountain cabin.  Overall, the trip educated the students on the inherent dangers of traveling in the San Juans and gave them skills to mitigate their exposure to those dangers by making informed decisions. The trip also served as a launch pad for the 7 th /8 th grade winter ecology and biology units on cold related injuries and wilderness medicine.

St. Michael's School Service Learning
Telluride Mountain School has a long history of friendship with and service to St. Michael's School for Special Education in Window Rock, Arizona. St. Michael's School was the setting for a Service Learning stint that marked the beginning of the 7th and 8th grades' two-week Spring 2005 Experiential Learning Trip to the Southwest. Mountain School students spent three days at St. Michaels on the Navajo Reservation, assisting in classroom activities as well as undertaking service projects on the 20-acre campus. An excerpt from a letter to parents from the Mountain School 7th and 8th Grade class follows:

"We have just returned from our final experiential trip of the year and it was phenomenal. Our class learned how to teach in a different manner while working with the Navajo students. We also enjoyed our community service projects, to the extent of not wanting to stop pulling weeds at St. Michael's school in Window Rock, AZ. We learned that even though the kids may have disabilities, they still share the same emotions."

San Juan River Kayak Expedition, Utah
On a stretch of 83-miles of San Juan River with Class II and III whitewater surging from a spring runoff of 4,000 cubic feet per second, 7th and 8th grade students in April 2005 plunged into the topics of Southwestern geology, historic human habitation of the river, pressing Western water issues and the nature writings of Wallace Stegner and Terry Tempest Williams.

The kayaking trip afforded students a hands-on overview of Southwestern geology and desert ecology as the group wound its way downriver. The Anasazi culture was studied through the exploration of ruins and picto- and petroglyphs along the way. The history and evolution of human habitat on the river -- from the Anasazi Indians to oil and uranium mining exploration to today's recreational uses -- were clarified as the river unfurled under students' kayaks.

Along the way, students gained new-found confidence as they mastered the choreography of kayaks through rapids and the importance of helping one another.

An excerpt from a letter to parents from the 7th and 8th grade class follows:

"Hardly anyone in our class had ever been in a kayak; the sport was new to all of us. Over the course of our trip we all gained new confidence and skills. There were two major rapids that we went through; on the first one, called Eight Foot, no one flipped and had to wet exit. On our last day when we hit the torrent of Government Rapid many of us hiked back up to run it again. Seeing the group change from never-ever to competent and confident paddlers was as amazing to us as it was to our leaders.

Throughout the trip we all helped each other in both the good times and bad. On our first day three people flipped on what we now could easily paddle. On other days many of us would flip, not because of the difficulty of the water, but because we were learning and practicing new skills for our 'tool box,' as Aaron called it.

Our class worked hard and was able to set up camp and cook meals as a community. We saw what we individually had to do to make a river trip run smoothly. We were able to sleep under the stars almost every night and the weather held for most of the trip. Who cares if it rains when you're already wet from paddling?

Our class got a lot closer to each other over the trip. One evening the girls performed a ritual the Navajo women do - it included washing your hair in yucca. The ceremony was a coming of age ceremony. The guys engaged in a heavy-duty mud fight (further egged on by the girls!).

Thanks for understanding why we got back so late on Thursday before we were supposed to arrive home - the reason was because we were able to paddle much better than was expected of us and were able to belt out 22.5 miles yesterday. We built an extraordinary amount of confidence and courage as the trip progressed."