Denver did not disappoint

I got to Denver with the help of lots of folks - first the principal agreed to it as a reward for excellent biology scores last year, next the district released the funds, next I was given enough info to get my flight and POs together, and finally my friend, Rob, took me and Washington, my biology teacher colleague who first asked the principal for the trip, to the airport.

The best day was the second full day with beautiful weather and a free trip to the zoo and later that same day a trip to the botanical garden. I was unsure if I was going to do both in the same day and the very kind hostess at the restaurant in the hotel decided to make a drawing. She wrote three choices on three scrap pieces of paper - the art museum (her choice), the botanical garden (my inclinations) and to tell you the truth I cannot remember the third choice - maybe it was not go anywhere. I did the drawing and it was the botanical garden, Thanks, Helena from Eritrea, for helping make my choice easy and my stay richly rewarding. She also recommended that I go to the Catholic Charities where they used dried flowers to make bookmarks and other items for a fundraiser when she heard I was a botany teacher.

Here are the shots from the trip to the zoo via bus 20 and to the botanical garden via bus 10 (as with other pictures click on them to go to slideshow and other pictures) I was fortunate enough to have the same bus driver on each trip both ways and they helped me with entry and exit points. The second driver had been in Denver seventeen years and never been to the botanical garden. On bus 20 I met PeeWee, a remarkable dog that barked for help whenever his owner had seizures.

The Zoo (There a family was amazed when I told them a coati, the wife's favorite animal that is kin to the bear, was on my back porch on my Earthwatch trip at Cave Creek in Arizona).

Trip to the Denver Zoo

The Botanical Garden (Everything outside was on its way to winter dormancy but the greenhouse was spectacular. I met a student photographer there who will share his photos to use in my classes. Thanks, Randy Poe.

Trip to Denver Botanical Garden

I went to some great workshops as well.

NABT Workshops

The best was by the M&M - Mary Ann and Marianne from Illinois - on keeping focus, structure, regular reinforcement and interesting activities always on the ready for at-risk students. They have an awesome wiki page - go there and request an invitation to join - http://nabtdenver2009.wikispaces.com/.



I also got a $50.00 gift certificate from a cool vernier workshop where I got my EKG, detected the CO2 emission of pea seeds, and plotted the transpiration of water from a herbacious shrub using their probes and software. With 20 more dollars from our science fees I got LoggerPro3 with the help of Mike Collins. Thanks, Mike.

I also learned about raising and giving students a plant to take care of at home for the school year - one was a carnivous plant that I have wanted to grow for some time. The presenter has taught all over the world and now is in Oregon. Another was the African violet that I raised when in college.

And the icing on the cake was the trip to the Catholic Charities. Not only did I meet some very dedicated earth and people loving folks who work with homeless, I learned a lot about drying flowers, raising bees and composting. Did you know the first place bees attack is your mouth because they sense the CO2 - it is a defense against their main predator the bear whose most vulnerable area is his/her mouth. Thanks, Julie, for a ride back to 16th street so I did not have to walk eight blocks to catch the D train.

Trip to Earthlinks