Story and photo by Joshua Cole
(originally published in Jan 28., 2010, Villager)
Colorado's future, according to the governor, is in space. But before we can go up into the sky, the governor looked down.
On Jan. 25, Gov. Bill Ritter and school representatives broke ground on Cherry Creek Schools' science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) school that is planned to be built between Overland High School and Prairie Middle School, near South Peoria Street and East Iliff Avenue.
“The thing that makes our country different is that we are the innovators and we are the creators. It has to begin with an emphasis much earlier than college campuses or college laboratories,” said Ritter, also noting that Colorado has the most aerospace engineers. “This school demonstrates an ability to think about those kids as our future scientists, as our future innovators, our future creators and the people that will help America remain competitive globally and will help us enjoy the quality of life we've gotten used to.”The 58,000-square foot school for students in grades 6-12 is scheduled to open in 2011. The school will also be a resource for elementary students from different schools to use.
Enrolled students can join specific tracks, including health, energy and computer sciences, and art and technical communications, said school leader Richard Charles.
“We have a crisis in this country when nearly 70 percent of the civilian scientific and technical workforce at the department of defense is eligible for retirement in seven years,” Charles said. “For our state, our challenge is clear. We must provide authentic experiences to students that will motivate them to pursue STEM careers. With this school, students will have opportunities to dream, invent and create solutions to solve today's cutting edge sciences.”
Charles, who has 15 years of professional experience in systems management and atmospheric sciences before he entered the education system, is working with colleges so that engineers and scientists will come to the school and work with students, to be real-world models on real projects.
“Through these efforts, students will have an opportunity to conduct research in STEM fields, to fly NASA simulated missions or be certified as a space technician,” Charles said.
The two-story school will have a lecture hall; 15 “studio” classrooms and an elementary classroom; labs for robotics, aviation and digital production; and two labs each for physics, chemistry and biology. Funding to build the school was part of the $200-million bond that voters passed in 2008.
After the groundbreaking, Ritter talked with Overland seniors Alex Sevit and Kara Minke, telling the pair about how he had witnessed a Mars lander hit the surface of the red planet because his nephew had worked on the project. Sevit and Minke broke ground next to Ritter at the ceremony. They were also interns at Lockheed Martin last summer. Sevit and Minke plan on studying mechanical engineering in college, Sevit hopes at the University of Denver and Minke at the Colorado School of Mines.
“I see aerospace engineering as a frontier. It's a relatively new science,” Sevit said. “When we worked at Lockheed, it provided the technical background, and we were able to see the concepts that we learned about in class applied to industry. I would have liked to have gone through the STEM school. But we were on the fast track for math and science and have gotten good science preparation. The STEM center is going to provide some of the applications of the science that we learned (at Lockheed).”
Photo caption: Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, Cherry Creek Schools Superintendent Mary Chesley and Overland High School Principal Jana Frieler break ground for construction of Creek's science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) school, which is scheduled to open in 2011.
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