Bailey – While most sixth- graders take field trips to the train station or the U.S. Mint or to hear “Peter and the Wolf,” the Jefferson County School District sends its 12-year-olds on the ultimate field trip: a week in the mountains to sleep in cabins and study the rocks and stars.
Each school year, some 6,000 Jefferson County sixth-graders go up to either a camp near the Mount Evans Ranch above Evergreen or to the Windy Peak campus just outside of Bailey. From Monday morning to Friday afternoon, the kids get hands-on learning about geology, wildlife, flora and the thousands of stars at night. They hike, eat together and sleep in dormitory cabins, with lots of giggling. Their classroom teachers come along too, as chaperones and teachers, as well as high school students who volunteer as counselors.
Rick Kaufman, spokesman for Jefferson County schools, said programs like these stay with the kids.
“They’re getting a different experience, a hands-on learning experience, that they’ll remember for a long, long time,” he said.
Last month, the Windy Peak campus opened a new astronomy center, a 1,900-square-foot log building with classrooms, computers, a spectroscopy lab to study the colors of gases, and the prime attraction – two 14-inch Ce lestron telescopes that are motorized to track the heavenly bodies.
The center was a gift from the 13 Jefferson County Kiwanis clubs, which raised nearly $400,000, half in cash and half in-kind. The school district gave $50,000, the Boettcher Foundation contributed $25,000 and the Jefferson Foundation another $10,000. The rest came from pancake breakfasts, rubber-bracelet sales and outstretched hands.
A host of volunteers, led by Jack Roberts and Darl Hobson, built the center. Licensed plumbers and electricians handled the mechanical and safety systems.
The kids love it.
“I saw Saturn last night,” said Conner Griggs, 12, who came up with his sixth-grade class from West Woods Elementary School. “It looked like an egg because the rings were vertical and you couldn’t see any space between them.”
Emily Rockhold, 12, wasn’t content just viewing planets.
“I was watching the Orion nebula,” she said. “It was a whole bunch of stars grouped together. Without the telescope, you can see Orion’s belt and his sword.”
Jacob Austin, 12, already knows how to tell the difference between stars and planets. “Stars twinkle and planets don’t,” he said.
Karen Cravens, the teacher who opened Windy Peak 30 years ago then returned seven years ago as principal, estimates more than 300,000 students have come through the program.
“Traveling around the world, I’ve met people who told me: ‘I went there. I remember that.’
“But what is so special about this center is that you never know what passion might ignite in a student. It happens here a lot.”
Staff writer Mike McPhee can be reached at 303-820-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com.
