Teacher Resources

The CCWF believes it is important for all westerners—especially students—to have a better understanding of our natural resources. Since these young people are the next generation of policy makers, it is imperative that they have a balanced perspective of the ecology and economy of natural resources—past, present and future. They need to realize that the choices they make as consumers, voters, business and civic leaders have environmental and financial impacts.

Our goal is to help them make well-informed decisions about Colorado’s valuable natural resources. Currently, our education products for 4th and 7th Graders include lesson plans/activities and resource links. We specifically focus on the wealth of history and natural resources in Clear Creek Watershed with these topics: A Summer of Gold: Mining History in the Idaho Springs Area, What’s Mined Is Yours (Mineral Resources), and What’s A Watershed? (Watershed Science).

We are in the process of evaluating the possibility of preparing Loan Boxes on these topics. In the future we hope to expand our topics to include forest management, alternative energy, ecosystems, conservation, etc. If you have suggestions on how to improve our educational efforts, please contact us.

To create our educational products, we have formed unique collaborations with:

• the Colorado Department of Natural Resources Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety,
• the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment,
• the Environmental Protection Agency,
• Coors,
• the US Forest Service and
• the Colorado School of Mines.

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