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Colorado River Canoeing: Astronomy for Continuing Ed Credit and General Interest to the Public

Jul 18 - 20, 2015

Reserve Now

Trip Fees

Adult

$394

Kids

Discount*

Student

$499

Deposit**

$100

** Deposits must be made per person.

See QUICK LINKS on the right sidebar for aditional information such as Itinerary, What to Bring, Map, What Makes it Fun, etc.

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC and K-12 TEACHERS. MUST BE 18.

Astronomy Education

Astronomy lectures and exercises will be conducted throughout the weekend as appropriate by your facilitator, Dr. Sanlyn Buxner. Sanlyn has her PhD in Space Science Education and teaches at the University of AZ.

Centennial teams up with the Colorado School of Mines (te@mines.edu) 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. Using various tools, learn to find objects in the sky and discover how scientists study planets, stars and galaxies. Understand how learning about the Earth helps us make claims about far away worlds, including the possibility of life. Conduct your own research project in the field and discuss how classroom investigations support the Next Generation Science Standards.

This combined 1-day class session and 3-day canoe trip earns 2 continuing ed credits for K-12 teachers. The pretrip class for students (and nonstudents auditing the class for an additional $40 fee) will be at the Sommers-Bausch Observatory at the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO, the Thursday prior to the canoe trip from 12:30 pm - 8:30 pm with additional, optional telescope viewing until 10 pm (weather permitting). Telescope viewing is open to friends and family starting at 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 the Thursday prior to the canoe trip at the Sommers-Bausch Observatory at the University of Colorado from 4 pm to 9:30 pm and will participate in a special 2-hour project in the field. Detailed class information will be mailed to all participants.

Non students may join just the canoe trip at regular adult prices ($394). Non students may also opt to audit the one-day pre-trip astronomy class for an addiitonal $40 fee. The focus of the one-day class will target K-12 educators and academic concerns.

What better opportunity to have fun on the river and learn while you’re at it!

The Colorado River

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 canoeing in Colorado. The river is gentle with occasional small Class I+ rapids to add spice to the journey (Class I is easy and Class V is difficult). 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 life jacket past the remnants of ancient metamorphic rock, called Black Rock. Camping along the river’s banks and exploring a deep box canyon 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, is ideal for canoeing.

Special Information

Our instructor, Dr. Sanlyn Buxner, has been teaching various astronomy courses with Centennial Canoe since 2002 and consistently gets rave reviews. Some of her background highlights are:

Teacher at the University of Arizona and does research in astronomy education
Education Specialist/Research Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute
Former Education and Public Outreach manager for the Mars Odyssey Gamma Ray Spectrometer and Education Specialist for NASA’s Mars Phoenix Lander
Has worked in astronomy education since 1998, including K-12 classroom, college classrooms, museums, university outreach, and teacher professional development