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Rain or shine, students become scientists during Eco Week

ON THE LAST OFFICIAL DAY of summer, fifth graders and teachers from O’Dea Elementary School left behind the city and made the trek to the Colorado State University Mountain Campus for Eco Week, where golden leaves spread across the mountain terrain, and everyone could feel fall rolling in with the clouds.

“The views were breathtaking!” says Cherie Maul, a fifth-grade teacher excited to attend Eco Week with her class after COVID prevented trips the past few years.

Eco Week is almost a rite of passage for many fifth graders in Poudre School District. Classes from some elementary schools go to the CSU Mountain Campus or get outdoors in other places so students can dig into nature and build community with their classmates. For some students, this is the first time they adventure out beyond their homes and schools, experiencing independence away from parents and technology.

O’Dea’s fifth graders experienced adventure right away. Joyful cheers, yells, and shouts of “You can do it” or “We believe in you!’ carried across the mountain as students explored the challenge course. After climbing the rock wall and jumping off the platform, Dalanie Guerrero reflects on her experience while walking to the next rotation activity.

“Eco Week is fun and cold!” she says, later adding that climbing the rock wall felt scary. Even though this experience intimidated her at first, Guerrero realizes that a person can be both brave and scared when overcoming fears and challenges.

Going from bird’s-eye views on the challenge course to up-close encounters along the river, the students couldn’t beat the rain before literally jumping in to learn about stream ecology.

Donning their multicolored ponchos and rain jackets, nothing could stop O’Dea. Some students felt hesitant about the rain, but a little water did not stop Ceci Broeckling from analyzing the macroinvertebrates she caught with her team.

“I like it because I’ve never done it before,” says Broeckling of her experience of examining the stream’s inhabitants under a microscope.

After the hands-on activity, students got out of the rain and returned to a classroom to finish their ecology lesson.

“You are true scientists now, rain or shine!” says Rylee Bundy, a CSU Mountain Campus Eco Week instructor.

For Bundy, life in this moment came full circle. Once a Lopez Elementary fifth grader, she remembers participating in the exact activity she now teaches.

Before wrapping up day one, O’Dea students took a moment to reflect on their history hike that explored the original mountain campus homestead. No matter their favorite part of the trip, students agreed that the lessons learned during Eco Week will serve them not only today or in middle school but for the rest of their lives.