Imagine you had the opportunity to design a course built entirely around your greatest passion, where you could choose everything—resources, books, articles, mentors, fieldwork locations, interviews with experts, a final project – what would that look like for you? At Watershed, this is a reality through our Independent Study program. Independent Study students collaborate with Watershed educators to create their own research projects, learning firsthand what it means to pursue their curiosity with both passion and rigor. Recent Independent Study presentations showcased an impressive range of topics—from Poverty and Homelessness to The Language of Computers and The Role of Philosophy in an Increasingly Complex World. True to Watershed, students spoke about how their work contributes to the common good—whether it’s advancing understanding of the experiences of unhoused people or submitting scientific research to expand our knowledge of the world.
To take a closer look at one of these projects, we sat down with Henry '25 to learn about his independent study this past trimester: Carbon Sequestration in the Lower Gordon Gulch.
WS: Henry, you just finished up your Independent Study! Tell us about it.
H: My Independent Study consisted of a science research project charting above-ground stored carbon in trees at the Upper-Montane Ecosystem. With the help of my mentor [Watershed science educator] Ethan, I sampled Ponderosa Pine, Lodgepole Pine, and Douglas Fir trees for diameter at breast height and tree height. The project also involved reading and analyzing almost thirty scientific papers on topics ranging from climate science to forest management reports in Colorado.
WS: How did you become interested in this topic - was there a specific subject or project from Watershed that influenced this idea?
H: I first became interested in forestry from spending lots of time outside mountain biking and backpacking. Moving to Boulder and starting at Watershed only solidified this interest with the emphasis on our environment here in the classroom and fieldwork. Traveling to Iceland [May Term] and conducting my own soil science project there definitely set me down a path of wanting to do more field science.
WS: How did fieldwork factor into your project? Where did you go, and what was involved?
H: Going into this Independent Study, I knew I wanted to design a project that involved hands-on fieldwork outside, but I had so many broad interests within forestry. Ethan helped me narrow down my interests and we came to the idea of charting how carbon storage differed by aspect. [“Aspect” in forestry refers to the direction of the slope or hillside where vegetation grows, and how sunlight exposure and runoff can affect growth.] I conducted my fieldwork in Gordon Gulch (near Nederland). The sampling consisted of measuring diameter at breast height with a special tape measure and measuring tree height with a clinometer (tool that uses trigonometry to determine the height of a tree as a percentage of your distance from that tree).
WS: Does this project align with your goals for study in college?
H: This project aligns with my goals for college and beyond in many ways. I plan to study forestry at the University of Montana. The program there is very hands-on and differs from a traditional forestry program in that it is designed to teach foresters how to face climate change. I would expect to do similar studies to this one in the future and having experience conducting scientific research will benefit me greatly moving forward.
WS: What were the challenges/upsides of independent study?
H: Timing was a challenge for this Independent Study because it was winter, and that limited some of our options to do fieldwork. There was a point where I was worried if it would all get done before the end of the term but I was able to collect my data, analyze it, and make a presentation with days to spare. For me the biggest upside was getting the chance to read tons of fascinating scientific articles that gave me a deeper understanding of the subject of forestry, both for this independent study and for my life moving forward.
