Reflection by LM

What a great week in a wonderful place. It was nice to meet with other educators and get to know them and find out about their schools.  The food was wonderful as well as the facilities. Even more important though was the amount of knowledge and information I think we all learned during  week.

     For me the most powerful experience was probably driving and walking through the Hayman and the Waldo fires. I think this was most poignant due to the fact that before we came up there, the Black Forest fire was still going on as well as other fires throughout the state. Seeing how MUCH acerage was burned was almost unbelievable. Jessica and I drove back home through Deckers and we were able to see again how  much land was burned.  Our trip home was somewhat silent as I think we both were processing everything we had seen and learned.

     Of course we have all been keeping watch on the flooding up in Teller County. It makes it seem so much more real since we visited sites that more than likely will be washed away with the monsoon rains.  The sandbagging effort seemed overwhelming and hopefully some of those homes will be saved.

     I got some great pictures of a variety of areas and Jessica and I are planning to put together a 2 week Unit using the materials we got which will hopefully incorporate some power points using our pictures as well as some demonstrations and  labs. We hope to put together a couple of kits we can share within our science department for those teaching Earth and Environmental Science. We also hope to work with our counterparts at Rocky Heights Middle School so that we can use more of the information without it being a repeat for when the students get to Rock Canyon.

    I came away from this workshop with a better understanding of how fire can be both good and bad and it’s not just trees burning, but what happens afterwards and the devastation it can cause for years to come. I also came away with great respect for those who work on making the forests healthier through mitigation as well as those who spend their time fighting the fires when they do happen.