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DENVER, COLORADO
A publication of
VOLUME 96 | ISSUE 22
Gorillas and other zoo animals enjoy eating local Horticulturalists tend the Denver Zoo’s kitchen garden BY KIRSTEN DAHL COLLINS SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
Kal, a 380-pound African gorilla at the Denver Zoo, grasped his floppy banana leaf the way some people hold a cone of caramel swirl ice cream. Slowly and deliberately, he savored every bite. Over at the zoo’s Tropical Discovery building, Rex, a rhinoceros iguana native to the Caribbean, munched his way through a special breed of spineless prickly pear cactus. Nearby, a shy, 40-pound capybara named Rebecca — a rodent native to Central and South America — couldn’t resist a fresh pile of water lettuce. It was snack time at the Denver Zoo, courtesy of Production Manager Patrick Crowell and his two staffers, Marcelle Condevaux and Keith Goode. Smiling, the three horticulturalists watched the animals polish off their greens. Crowell and his staff had grown these tropical plants in several designated City Park greenhouses, which serve as kitchen gardens for many of the zoo’s 3,000 animals. Whether it’s cardamom and ginger leaves, banana trees or hibiscus flowers, the greenhouse staff enables zoo animals to eat local — even if they crave flora from across the globe. The gardeners also grow landscaping plants for animal enclosures, from tall stands of euphorbia cactus to sweet gum trees. “We’re trying to grow as much as we can locally,” Crowell said, adding that “growing exotics can take quite a bit of research.” The greenhouse specialties are grown without pesticides, using recycled water. All of this saves money the zoo would otherwise spend importing SEE LOCAL, P2
Colorado offers Zearn digital math learning $6M price tag allows state to provide program to all K-12 schools BY ERICA MELTZER CHALKBEAT
Kal, a 360-pound male gorilla at the Denver Zoo, savors a fresh banana leaf grown for PHOTOS BY TIM COLLINS him by zoo horticulturalists at the City Park greenhouses.
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 11
Colorado is making the digital learning program Zearn Math available for free to schools statewide as part of a broader effort to address gaps in math learning that widened during the pandemic. Gov. Jared Polis has set aside up to $6 million in pandemic relief money to pay for licenses for the digital program and to pay for printed materials for schools that adopt Zearn’s math curriculum Training also will be available to teachers in how to use the new platform. Math scores on state and national standardized tests declined during the pandemic, with sharper drops in math than in reading and writing. Both educators and policymakers are focused on how to help students gain skills they missed out on during three disrupted years. Last month, Polis and lawmakers unveiled a bipartisan $25 million proposal to offer widespread afterschool tutoring in math, expand teacher training, and encourage districts to adopt high-quality curriculum. In addition, the initiative SEE LEARNING, P6
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