Aspen High School is an International Baccalaureate (IB) school. The highest rigor of course load a student can take is the IB Diploma Program. This entails that the student must take six IB classes, (3 must be higher level; HL), take Theory of Knowledge, complete an extended essay (EE), CAS (creativity, activity, service) portfolio, and an IA, (internal assessment) in each class.
Seniors, Ben Clark and Lauren Kinney are in the diploma program at the high school. Their CAS project was focused on teaching the children in the district about the importance of maintaining the environment. Growing up in a community that is surrounded by nature and open space, the two seniors wanted to share their passion with the younger generations about their impact on the environment.
In order to share their passions with the younger kids, there was a lot of planning involved. They reached out to the second-grade teacher, Nikki Dorr, and requested to teach in front of the class. Once, Dorr approved of the visits, Clark and Kinney got to planning. With constant emails back and forth, collecting supplies, and creating presentations to inform the children about Earth Day as well as simple tasks to help save the environment!
On April 21, 2023, the two seniors went down to the elementary school and presented their Earth Day slideshow to Nikki Dorr’s second-grade class. During the presentations, there were videos, textile activities, as well as informative information that would be beneficial to the children’s exposure to Earth Day. Throughout the presentations, kids were engaged and asked questions in order to better their understanding as well.
As the presentation came to a close, Clark and Kinney had a hands-on activity set up in order to get the kids excited about Earth Day! They used egg cartons that were recyclable and collected soil and seeds. The kids used individual egg cartoons and placed soil in the cartoons. After that, they were able to spray water on the soil and place flower seeds in the cartons. This allowed the kids to be hands-on, and learn simple tasks to save and help protect the earth.
Throughout this CAS project, the two IB diploma candidates learned how to communicate as well as produce a well rounded presentation that was engaging and reached the target audience! The two stated that it felt wonderful to give back to the district and see the smiles on all the kid’s faces!
