 | Western Immersion Program Colorado Springs and the surrounding region offer unique opportunities to study the Western landscape, and the Western Immersion Program (WIP) was established in 1996 to bring an interdisciplinary, experiential program to the 10th grade curriculum.
The program began as an idea that centered upon the notion that the landscape of the Mountain Campus offered a wonderful place to explore the connections between land and people. These connections are examined from different perspectives that have academic roots in the FVS traditional curriculum but also lend themselves to an experiential, hands-on method of teaching and learning. The inspiration for the program came from the writings of Wallace Stegner, who many regard as the finest writer of the American West. One of Stegner's strongest beliefs was that a landscape could inspire humans to their highest calling when they described it poetically in a process he referred to as "poetry of place."
With this in mind, a program has been designed that attempts to inspire students to reach out to their surroundings and create this poetry of place by becoming more intimately acquainted with the landscape of the Arkansas River Valley and Collegiate Peaks wilderness. Students participate in three all-day academic blocks that utilize the outdoor classroom unique to the Mountain Campus. One of the blocks is an all-day ecology and nature writing seminar that explores the relationship between Colorado's life zones and descriptive writing.
The second block is an art program that engages students in environmental sculpture. Working with local artist Steve Wood, students observe, sketch and collect natural objects from the forest and construct both individual and group sculptures. The third block finds students traveling to Leadville, Colo., to explore the human history of the silver mining era of the late 1800s. The common thread that runs through all these blocks is the field journal each student creates. Each day, students will use their journals to creatively interact with their surroundings and record elements of their experiences that will help them build an appreciation for the landscape surrounding the Mountain Campus.
In the evenings, students and faculty gather around the fire for special presentations that relate to different aspects of the program. This year, program director Rob Gustke will give an overview talk and slide show on the WIP theme: "Up to Your Knees in the World: Taking Inventory of Person and Place." On the second evening, Mary Jane Durant will perform her living historical presentation of "Augusta Tabor," the first wife of Horace, whom he left for Baby Doe Tabor. Immediately following will be a pumpkin-carving contest to celebrate Halloween.
The following afternoon, the group will visit Mt. Princeton Hot Springs on the way in from the field, and after dinner Diana Miller of the Pueblo Raptor Center will bring in birds of prey and give a presentation on the biology of these amazing animals.
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| | WIP is all about spending time together outdoors and connecting with the physical landscape of the Rocky Mountains. Teachers and students are out in the field all day writing poetry, learning mountain ecology, seeing the human history of Leadville and creating art from the materials nature supplies.
This experience builds a strong bond between teachers and students that makes the learning experience dynamic; we all learn side by side in a casual setting. WIP leaves all of us better able to appreciate the unique landscape of our western surroundings, and we come home a tighter and closer knit group because of the experience we have shared."— Robert Gustke, Science Faculty, WIP Coordinator |
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