Colorado River

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Trip Overview

Centennial teams up with the Colorado School of Mines (303-273-3303) to offer an astronomy class for teachers (K-12) and for general interest to the public. The wilderness night sky is a phenomenal environment for learning more about our solar system, sunspots, constellations, deep sky objects, and astronomy activities for the classroom. This combined 1-day class session and 3-day canoe trip earns 2 continuing ed credits for teachers. The pretrip class for students will be at the Colorado University Fiske Planetarium in Boulder, CO, on Wednesday, July 30, 2008, from 1 pm - 8:30 pm. Former participants in level I of this class can qualify for Level II credit by completing a special project to be determined by the instructor and conducted concurrently with the basic class offering. Level II participants will attend the lecture on July 30, 2008, at the Fiske Planetarium from 4 pm to 9:30 pm and will participate in a special 2-hour project in the field. Non teachers may take the full course for the student price and have a reserved seat. Non credit, discounted seats, for the canoe trip only (at regular canoe trip prices), are based on space availability. What better opportunity to have fun on the river and learn while you’re at it! Ages 15 and up.

This spectacular canyon country of the Colorado Plateau, including Ruby and Horsethief Canyons, features majestic walls of red sandstone and offers some of the best Colorado canoeing and Colorado sea kayaking. The river is gentle with occasional small Class I+ rapids to add spice to the journey. Roads do not bound this portion of the river and the steep-walled canyons are accessible only from the river, giving the area a true wilderness setting.

You’ll be amazed at stands of shiny granite sculpted by water through the ages while paddling or floating in your lifejacket past the remnants of ancient metamorphic rock, called Black Rock. Camping along the river’s banks, exploring a natural amphitheater with ancient Indian rock art or hiking into deep box canyons will leave you awed by the immensity of geologic time and the silence of the wilderness. This is BIG COUNTRY and a geologist’s paradise. Many of our educational classes focus on this area. This stretch of river near Grand Junction, CO, can accommodate either a canoe trip or sea kayak trip.

Special Information

Our instructor, Sanlyn Buxner, has been teaching this course with Centennial Canoe since 2003 and consistently gets rave reviews. Some of her background highlights are:

• Ph.D. student at the University of Arizona in astronomy education
• Education and Public Outreach manager for the Mars Odyssey Gamma Ray Spectrometer where she performs education and public outreach work for the newest mission to Mars, the Mars Phoenix Lander
• Worked in astronomy education for the past 10 years, including K-12 classroom, college classrooms, museums, university outreach, and teacher professional development
• Member of the Conceptual Astronomy and Physics Education Research team