STEM

It’s a rocking week at the Center! After being away at the NFB Convention for two of our Tuesday gardening days, the Tech classes checked things out this week. Japanese eggplant was ready and everyone got a little excited about the peach tree we planted a couple of years ago. It’s the first year it’s big enough to really bear fruit, and it is!

We have a couple of new ITP students. Also, Will is a grad student at UNC and is doing part of his practicum in Orientation and Mobility with us for three weeks. And Alfred D’Agostino, Chair of the Chemistry Department at Notre Dame of Maryland is here this week teaching our students the fundamentals of the Talking Lab Quest from Independence Science and its applications in Chemistry. Dr. D’Agostino has taught college chemistry for more than 20 years.

And then there are the mini-meals and so much more happening this week! Like summer kids canoeing and ITP students rock climbing. In fact, Alfred, a former Boy Scout Troop leader, will join the rock climbers tomorrow!

Then it’s Science Day for Summer on Saturday!

Whew!

For most of us, the run up to the Thanksgiving holiday doesn’t conjure thoughts of sharks, but it does here at the Colorado Center for the Blind. That’s because for nearly a decade, Arapahoe Community College’s Biology Professor Terry Harrison has been conducting his shark dissection here with blind kids from around the Denver Metro area as well as from the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind (CSDB).

This year’s event is Friday, November 13, from 10 a.m. to noon in our gym at 2233 W. Shepperd Ave.

“We set out to show that blind kids can actively participate in STEM subjects in school, and even consider STEM careers,” says Youth Services Director Brent Batron. “Terry has been a great ally for us in accomplishing this critical part of that goal.”

Students at @cocenter4blind got a chance to experience science in all its disgusting glory.

By Ramsey Scott
November 18, 2014
Columbine Courier

“Yucks!” blended with yucks as the students probed the stomach contents of the dogfish sharks they were dissecting

“I found a claw,” said one student, as he waved miniature pincers in the air.

“I found a fish,” another student said as she held high a half-digested fish body.

A biology class cutting open a formaldehyde-soaked animal isn’t necessarily a unique event. Yet for most of the class at the Colorado Center for the Blind in Littleton on Nov. 14, it was their first chance to experience what most students take for granted.

“This is my first time doing anything like this. It’s really interesting and a little nasty,” said Nick Crowell, 17, a student at the Colorado Springs-based Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind who came to Littleton for the class. “It’s interesting because we get to see how similar humans are to some animals. And they’re letting us use sharp instruments, and we don’t really get to do that.”

Our FAST Saturdays program for youth will meet the second Saturday of each month and involve a variety of activities. FAST stands for FUN ACTIVITIES and SKILLS TRAINING

We at the Center are excited about new or strengthened collaborations with Rocky Mountain Goal Ball, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR in Boulder is sometimes referred to as NCAR), and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Sports, STEM, and the arts it’s just the balance we’re seeking with our FAST Saturdays!

RSVP to Brent Batron 303-778-1130 x 222 or bbatron@cocenter.org

Saturday September 13 – Rocky Mountain Goal ball

2 – 6 pm

Come and learn the sport of Goal ball with Matt Simpson, para-Olympic goal ball star

Goal ball will be played Saturdays at the Colorado Center for the Blind nearly every week this fall!! A complete schedule will follow shortly.

Saturday October 11 – FAST Saturday Science

10 am – 2 pm

This year’s shark dissection, sponsored by Arapahoe Community College and directed by its Terry Harrison, attracted more than 30 local blind middle school and high school students to the Center on November 22. Oh yeah, the kids brought teachers and parents, too. It’s all part of our ongoing commitment to make STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) subjects accessible to blind students.

Nelson Garcia, 9News Education Reporter also showed up with a camera crew, and here’s the short video clip that appeared that evening on KUSA in Denver: