On Thursday, January 24th, social studies teacher Ms. Lucido took her AP Human Geography class to the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1906, the National Western Stock Show is Colorado’s largest western trade show with over 650,000 visitors each year.

AP Human Geography addresses how populations grow, how cities form, and how people use land differently. “We talk a lot about people who have more (economically) and people who have less and the economics of it all,” Lucido said.

Claire Clothier 10 went to the stock show with classmates to see the cattle venues. “We got to see how they sell cattle and how they groom them,” Clothier said. “They had some information about Colorado State University and their agriculture program and also how they get beef.”

Lucido’s class is similar in regards to covering world geography, but the class tends to focus on cultural aspects as well. “It really has a lot to do with where things are in the world and why they’re there and how it affects humans,” Clothier said.

Lucido brought her students to the stock show in connection to earlier teachings from that week. “Earlier in the week we had a guest speaker who came in and talked about the problems with the livestock industry so we got to see how the animals are treated and how everything works,” Clothier said.

The stock show puts on displays every year showing both cattle and horses. “At the stock show, we were able to see how they breed animals,” Lucido said. “CSU also had a huge agricultural display that showed everything from the crops and the byproducts of the cattle to how they make footballs and leather couches.”

This year was the first time that Lucido took her students to the events, making way for a new tradition. “Parts of it were beneficial, and parts of it were not,” Lucido said. “I think next time I’m going to have some specific things that they have to look for or do.”

“I definitely learned more about how the whole livestock process works,” Clothier said. “I also learned a lot about how agriculture and farms up in Colorado work.”