As a large custom coach turned a corner and rolled into the St. Vrain Valley Schools Transportation Center in July, cheers and applause could be heard as members of the St. Vrain Valley Schools team got their first in-person look at our community’s new Future-Ready Innovation Lab. The ST. VRAINNOVATION Future-Ready Innovation Lab is a cutting-edge technology and innovation center in a mobile environment, emphasizing virtual reality, augmented reality, robotics, design-thinking, aeronautics, as well as STEM and early learning experiences that will excel students’ learning and extend public education beyond the classroom.
What if instead of researching the ocean floor, students could travel there? Or instead of studying the chambers of the heart, students could manipulate one virtually and explore every fiber and vessel? Technology has the power to transform and St. Vrain Valley Schools is transforming public education by giving all 33,000 students in our district access to the world and beyond. St. Vrain Valley Schools is 411 square miles and serves 13 communities. While there are incredible things going on in our schools and at the centrally located Innovation Center, the Future-Ready Innovation Lab will extend access and equity to not only our students, but also our community in experiencing hands-on learning through technology and innovation. The Innovation Lab has been 100 percent funded by corporate and nonprofit sponsors, including Stapp Toyota, Crestone Peak Resources, UCHealth, IBM, United Power, and more. It highlights strong partnerships across our community from industry partners who champion our public schools and advance opportunities for our students.
Current and future planned programming includes:
- Design-thinking challenge for students to engage with industry experts to design the hospital room of the future.
- Pilot classroom for teachers to develop lessons utilizing virtual reality to explore arctic ecosystems.
- Collaboration space for high school students to teach elementary students computer programming skills through robotics.
- Community center for seniors to experience a 21st-century classroom and use virtual reality to travel through time and space.
- Mobile classroom to showcase innovations of the energy industry and partnerships across a school feeder.
The lab will be a highly-visible, accessible resource for sharing the powerful learning experiences taking place in our classrooms. It will also demonstrate how quality public schools impact economic growth and the success of our communities. Whether it is at the state Capitol, the Boulder County Fair, or the Tri-Town Senior Center, the lab will open the doors to greater connections between our students, our teachers, our community, and our high-quality public schools. The St. Vrainnovation Future-Ready Innovation Lab is an investment in strengthening our system and fostering new opportunities for growth and advancing public education in Colorado – something that our sponsoring partners agree is foundational to our continued economic growth and workforce development.
The ST. VRAINNOVATION Future-Ready Innovation Lab is 100% funded by these and many other industry and nonprofit partners. Thank you to our community for supporting the advancement of public education and outstanding opportunities for our students.
Buckeye Mountain, Sphero, Seagate, SparkFun, and Misty Robotics