Exploring and learning on Valley Floor Education Day
Wednesday’s event brought TES students to the ‘front yard.’
By Erin Spillane Planet Contributor, Planet Contributor
The Valley Floor is a complex stretch of land.
Each year in May, Telluride Elementary School students explore and learn about those complexities as part of Valley Floor Education Day.
The event sees kindergarteners and first and second graders visit the 570-acre parcel to take part in science-based activities, experiments and observations.
This year’s get-together, which took place on Wednesday, saw the youngsters engage in programming organized by the Pinhead Institute, Sheep Mountain Alliance, Telluride Historical Museum, San Miguel Watershed Coalition and the Telluride Institute.
Pinhead’s program manager, Ashley Federici, pointed out that the motivation behind the event “is to continue to educate kids on the importance of preserving not only the Valley Floor, but the natural world.”
“When you’re running, skiing or mountain biking, you may move along trails quickly and sometimes miss the details,” she said. “All of these little details weave together to create healthy ecosystems that deserve further exploration.”
The 2023 event was comprised of four stations, Federici explained.
The first was the pond station, which was overseen by Pinhead and the Telluride Institute.
There, she said, the kids “explored life in and around the pond. They learned about aquatic insects, pollinators and birds that call wetlands their home.”
Federici continued, “Students got to help identify the different species of insects that spend all or part of their lives in an aquatic environment, as a way of teaching them the importance of freshwater ponds as it relates to ecosystem health.”
The San Miguel Watershed Coalition, along with Elena Hausser of the Town of Telluride Water and Wastewater Division, oversaw the river station.
“Students explored the flow rate of the river by timing how long it took for a stick to travel from one point to another,” Federici said.
She said that students at the river station also learned about beavers and how they build dams and impact river flows.
Run by Sheep Mountain Alliance, spruce station was another stop for the kids.
“Students participated in meditative observations within a spruce grove, a type of forest bathing,” Federici said. “They looked for signs of life, like scat, footprints, antlers, etc., and new growth of vegetation. They learned about the importance of preserving the Valley Floor and how it permits so many organisms to thrive.”
At the Telluride Historical Museum- and Pinhead-led willow station, students learned how Telluride's first people, the Nuchu or Utes, used their knowledge and skills to build shelters varying in size and complexity for different seasonal needs, according to Federici.
“Students made their own shelters from gathered sticks and pre-pruned willow branches as an engineering challenge, as well as a nod to those that walked this land before us,” she said.
Pinhead’s special projects guru Jessica Tenenbaum said that the day is designed carefully so that it is as low impact as possible.
“We have groups that come in the morning and in the afternoon and we split them up so they are visiting different stations at different times in rotation,” she said. “It minimizes our impact on the Valley Floor, preventing excess damage to the ecosystem.”
Pinhead Executive Director Sarah Holbrooke remarked that the annual event serves two purposes.
“The Valley Floor is Telluride’s front yard but, for some people, unless you are invited out there, you might never go,” Holbrooke said. “So, it’s a chance for our kids to discover this incredible environment that is right beside us.”
Holbrooke also pointed to the importance of starting children early with science.
“These are lessons that are a great way for these younger kids to dip their toe into science and get them excited about it,” she said. “It’s hands-on, site-specific learning that can inspire them for the rest of their lives.”