This school year, students at Sopris Elementary School in Glenwood Springs have run experiments in building and propulsion engineering, DNA extraction and chemical reactions. They have done this with help from Aspen Science Center (ASC) instructors, who have visited the school throughout the autumn thanks to a funding grant intended to increase fun and accessible science lessons for local youth. The Sopris Sun spoke with ASC’s interim education manager, Lillian McIntyre, to learn more.
McIntyre explained that this autumn’s programming is an expansion on a test program. “We did a smaller scale of it last year,” she said. “This is the first year we’re seeing the whole school. Last year we saw each of the kids in the third grade. We’ve done smaller-scale programs but this is the first time we’ve worked with the whole school.”
The program started as a result of outreach by teachers in the school. “Sopris Elementary reached out to ASC to help with specials classes on early release days, so ASC works with an entire grade for a period of those days,” McIntyre shared. “It’s a fully grant-funded program, the schools don’t have that much funding for this kind of program. They probably wouldn’t have been able to do this type of thing without grant funding.”
Since 2024, ASC has partnered with Access After School to bring STEM lessons to three Re-2 schools: Wamsley, Graham Mesa and Elk Creek elementary schools. McIntyre described these as “a five-week series for afterschool programs that helps take the load off teachers while teaching science. With other schools, the organization tends to do one-off presentations when invited by the school.”
At Sopris Elementary, ASC aims to introduce different types of lessons to expose students to various science and math disciplines. “The first session we did was a junior doctor theme,” McIntyre said. “The school asked for science the kids wouldn’t see in their regular classes.” One ASC lesson involved fake surgery on a clay body with fourth graders. “Some of the other kids got to do a program where they did a strawberry DNA extraction and an elephant toothpaste example where they got to see chemical reactions,” McIntyre continued. “For the upcoming final sessions, it’s more of an engineering focus.” Older grades will build and test small rockets, while younger grades will build stable playhouses based on the “Three Little Pigs” story, testing durability.
The latter has been done by some groups already in recent sessions. “In our ‘Three Little Pigs’ challenge, we read the book but in Spanish,” McIntyre shared, and said it was also a lesson for students in different types of learning. “The librarian said, ‘This is such a great moment for the English-speaking kids to see how their Spanish-speaking peers are learning all the time.’”
McIntyre: “We’re really trying to focus on things that will be both fun and age-appropriate for the kids.” And the response from the kids has been positive, she said. “During the last session, one of the students came up and said, ‘Wow, you really challenged us.’ Something that’s been so cool with these kids at Sopris is how they’re so willing to keep trying, even when learning difficult concepts like the engineering design process.”
ASC also runs programs at libraries throughout the Roaring Fork Valley to make science, technology, engineering and math engaging and accessible for kids and families. The 20-year-old organization has been steadily expanding their programs. According to the ASC website, as of 2024, the organization’s accomplishments include 4,292 youth engaged with hands-on STEM experiences, 2,951 adults enriched through STEM education, 323 programs from Parachute to Aspen, 49 donors and partnerships with local businesses and 1,500 paid intern hours for high school and college students.To learn more about ASC programming, visit www.aspensciencecenter.org