Space Foundation program finally flies over to Swigert school

With one classroom up and running, the U.S. Space Foundation on Monday officially moved its teacher training courses onto the campus of a Colorado Springs School District 11 middle school.

Space Discovery Institute banners were slung on the outside of the foundation’s two buildings adjacent to the Swigert Aerospace Academy, a new D-11 school with a focus on space and technology.

Office furniture and supplies were stacked in some rooms and others were nearly empty. But in one spacious classroom, about 15 teachers from Swigert and the Galileo School of Math and Science were planning a lunar colony.

“It’s a project they can take back to their classrooms,” said Bryan DeBates, senior aerospace education specialist for the Space Foundation. As they build their society, there are components for language arts, history, culture, engineering, science and math.

DeBates was thrilled to be teaching in his own classroom, with all supplies at hand.

Aerospace Education Specialist Allison Benjamin said the education team began moving into the building last week, although she has been working with Swigert teachers since school started in August.

“It’s great to be here with the kids,” she said. “We’re all former teachers and being here helps us remember the challenges.”

For years, the foundation has offered master’s level teacher training courses in the summer, most recently using space at Regis University or the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. But that meant “schlepping” everything to those locations, unpacking, teaching and packing back up, DeBates said.

Plus, he said, there often were technical issues, such as university firewalls that blocked sites the foundation was trying to access.

The foundation moved into its digs at Swigert as part of a partnership forged with D-11 this spring. The buildings at 4220 E. Pikes Peak Ave. housed the Emerson Edison Charter Academy for 12 years, but its poor performance led to a mandatory restructuring, and D-11 decided to create a space-focused middle school. The school has about 500 students.

Under the partnership, the foundation gets rent-free use of the buildings in exchange for help developing and implementing the space-themed curriculum at Swigert, and providing teacher training and laboratory programs for students.

Also, D-11 will get a cut of the profits from the foundation’s summer courses.