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E-Weeks and Cascades
METHOW CAMPUS E-WEEKS
AND CASCADES
by Polly Oppmann Fredlund, Director of Enrollment Management and Communications
he Bush Methow Campus was established in 2016, and serves as a home base for Middle and Upper School students to explore experiential, interdisciplinary programming, including E-weeks and Cascades. Students and teachers come together to consider place-based, real-world challenges in this unique setting, engaging in community-based projects and exploring the landscape together. The Bush School Methow Campus reopened in May 2021 to Bush students, following a yearlong hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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METHOW CAMPUS E-WEEK AND CASCADES
The following is a sample of E-week and Cascades that have taken place at The Bush School Methow Campus since 2016.
E-WEEKS
Methow River Leadership Mountain Biking Fly fishing and Watershed Ecology Climbing and USFS Stewardship Partnership Project Winter Skills and Community Service Snow Fun Winter Sport Sampler
2021 E-week: Methow River Leadership
Leaders: Brian Ra erty, Eighth Grade Math Teacher; Mark Leporati, Middle School Human Relations Teacher; Sophie Daudon, E-week Trip Leader Dates: May 2021; Twelve days including ten days at Methow Campus Grade Levels: Seventh and Eighth Grade Bush Middle School students joined Bush teachers Mark Leporati and Brian Ra erty, as well as classmates, to learn all about being a river guide. The training course was led by Methow Rafting whitewater guides. The skills learned in this program include reading the river, knowledge of personal and river equipment, paddle boating, oar boating, scouting rapids, river rescue, and river ethics. The training took place on a variety of rivers, including the Methow. Days were spent on the river followed by evenings spent at the Bush Methow Campus in Mazama. The trip was intensive at times, but it was also be an incredibly exciting adventure and worthwhile in terms of learning valuable skills that can be used in the future. This program was led in partnership with MethowRafting.
CASCADES
Skiing through History: A Methow Tale Backcountry Skiing: Avalanche Safety and the Psychology of Group Decision Making Writing the Future: Climate Change and Solarpunk Internships
Methow Filmmaking
Leaders: Dan Osar, Upper School English; Laura LeBlanc, Upper School Science Dates: May 2021; Three weeks including five nights at the Methow Campus Grade Levels: Ninth through Twelfth Grade Bush Upper School students spent three weeks creatively and optimistically imagining a more equitable and sustainable future. With an eye on climate justice and using the budding literary genre of Solarpunk as a framework, students read and wrote solution-oriented speculative fiction that counteracts the popular, pessimistic narratives of dystopian and apocalyptic fiction. In order to e ectively write these stories, students learned climate change science and explored sustainable solutions in energy usage, food systems, and building and urban development in both the Methow Valley and Seattle. That hard science was then incorporated into original short stories that envision a future society and environment that is rising, not collapsing. Activities included discussions, writing workshops, hikes and walks, virtual and in-person field trips, and hands-on explorations.
