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Colorado River Canoeing: CO School of Mines Astronomy--Open to Teachers and the Adult Public

Jul 14 - 16, 2018

Reserve Now

Trip Fees

Adult

$404

Kids

Discount*

Student

$499

Deposit**

$100

** Deposits must be made per person.

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

OPEN TO TEACHERS AND THE ADULT PUBLIC (min. age 18).

Astronomy Education

Centennial Canoe 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. This combined 1-day class session and 3-day canoe trip earns 2 relicensure credits for teachers. The general public may go on just the canoe trip at regular canoe trip prices ($404), and/or opt to audit the pretrip astronomy class session for an additional $50.

Get away from city lights and explore deep sky objects and magnificent canyons on a wilderness river canoe trip. 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. Coinciding with the early stages of the Perseid Meteor Shower, you won't want to miss one falling star!

Astronomy lectures, exercises, and activities for the classroom will be conducted throughout the canoe trip as appropriate by your facilitator, Dr. Sanlyn Buxner; Sanlyn has her PhD in Space Science Education and teaches at the University of AZ. Credit-earning students will conduct their own research project in the field and discuss how classroom investigations support the Next Generation Science Standards.

The pretrip class will be at the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO, the Thursday prior to the canoe trip from 12:30 pm - 8:30 pm. Former participants in level I of this class can qualify for Level II credit by completing a special project/investigation prior to the class. Level II participants will also attend the lecture at the University of Colorado. Detailed class information will be mailed to all participants.

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 this course with Centennial Canoe since 2002 and consistently gets rave reviews. Some of her background highlights are:

Teaches at the University of Arizona and does research in astronomy education
Education Specialist 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