Connecting River, Students, and Community

As a center for bosque and environmental education and research, the Albert J. and Mary Jane Black Institute for Environmental Studies at Bosque School (Black Institute) strives to build connections between students, their community, and the riverside forest that sustains and binds them all. The work of the institute does two things. First, it orchestrates learning opportunities that help people understand river ecosystems and their supporting watersheds. Second, it provides people with time in an urban, riverside forest that allows them to gain a sense of place. The institute works under the premise that to be wise stewards of a resource, people must both know facts about how a particular ecosystem functions and also have a personal connection with that place.

Students involved in Black Institute activities are just as likely to spend time on hands and knees investigating how a beaver chews down a cottonwood tree as they are to be found at a computer terminal creating a model to predict cottonwood survival rates related to beaver activity. The use of electronic technologies is an important adjunct to direct field studies. Sophisticated understanding of a topic and complicated data manipulations are enhanced by having first hand experience with that topic. The underlying assumption is that it is easiest to care for things that are well known on many levels.

Black Institute activities take many forms. Events include hosting environmental education training for teachers and other youth leaders. Frequently these focus on how to incorporate environmental education into existing school subjects while meeting standards and being consistent with national education reform efforts. Other Institute activities include hosting and helping to sponsor gatherings and conferences for students who are environmental monitors. The Black Institute also assists in the publication and dissemination of student conducted research through traditional print as well as Internet opportunities. The Black Institute is as much about building community connections with other learners as it is about supporting the personal discovery of a river, its watershed, and its forest.