CSU’s Little Shop of Physics and Native American Cultural Center Tour Four Corners Region

A group of Colorado State University students will do something a little different during Spring Break this year. They will travel to the Four Corners region with volunteers from CSU’s Little Shop of Physics on an educational outreach tour.

This year six students from the Native American Cultural Center, six students from the Little Shop of Physics and six students for Alternative Spring Break will tour schools in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico to demonstrate how science can be fun.

The Little Shop of Physics offers a traveling hands-on science outreach program that started at Colorado State University in 1991. The group is comprised of science educators and science students, who travel the region with a van full of hands-on experiments. This is the 15th year that Little Shop has visited the Four Corners region and the 7th year Native American Cultural Center has participated in the program.

The group will visit Montezuma-Cortez High School in Cortez, Colo. on March 15 and Navajo Preparatory School, Inc. in Farmington, N. M. on March 16. The group will then head to Tse Bit Ai’ Middle School in Shiprock, N.M. and Mesa Elementary in Shiprock, N.M.

“K-12 outreach is priority to our office and we look forward to providing an opportunity for students in these communities to experience how fun science can be,” said Ty Smith, director of Native American Cultural Center at CSU.
Each visit to the schools involves hands-on science experiments for kids, plus after-school workshops for teachers to enhance their curriculum and an evening program aimed at parents and community members.

“This trip is important because we are exposing youth to the benefits of learning and higher education,” said Derrick Benallie, CSU electrical engineering major and resident of Kirtland, N.M.

The Four Corners outreach trip is supported by the John and Sophie Ottens Foundation and the Colorado State-based Center for Multi-Scale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes.

To learn more about the Native American Culture Center, visit www.nacc.colostate.edu. For more information about Little Shop of Physics, visit www.littleshop.physics.colostate.edu.
-30-