STEM SCHOOL HIGHLANDS RANCH

STEM School Highlands Ranch: We Will Never Stop Innovating

Since its inception in 2011, STEM School Highlands Ranch sets the standard for innovation. A free, public charter school in the Douglas County School District, our school places a high priority on getting technology into the hands of students, while also encouraging collaborative learning.

Serving students in grades kindergarten through senior year, the school offers access to a range of unique learning opportunities that produce students who are ready to compete at the highest levels. Our classrooms are not like the traditional classrooms of the past. Teachers and students work in a collaborative environment to solve real-world problems.

“We believe it is vital that children become excited about learning as soon as possible,” said Dr. Penelope Eucker, Executive Director. “This excitement translates into a lifelong appreciation for STEM that will carve the path for the rest of their education and beyond.”

Our school is one of the few STEM schools that infuse science, technology, engineering and mathematics learning into all aspects of education. In addition to integrated, problem-based learning across all STEM subjects, the school offers rigorous humanities courses, arts, world languages and a theater and music program that was selected as one of the most innovative by the Entertainment Industry Foundation.

“Our Leadership Team, along with our Staff Advisory Team, works very hard to recruit some of the industry’s top talent to come teach our students the real-world tools that they will need to succeed,” Dr. Eucker said. “We want to create an environment within our school where teachers want to teach and couldn’t imagine teaching anywhere else.”

Recovery and Resiliency

The events of May 7 will forever leave an imprint on our school, students, families and community. However, the spirit and legacy of all the heroes from that day provides a light of resiliency for us all as we walk through the stages of recovery. Our heros embodied what it means to be a STEM Spartans: Honesty, Integrity, Empathy, Respect and Responsibility. past seven years, earning Colorado’s highest academic award, the John Irwin Award every year. We are ranked No. 10 in Colorado for the state-required SAT and our high school is ranked 12th in Colorado by U.S. News and World Report. Our school serves roughly 1,750 students from K-12. In 2019, we secured a 95.8% Achievement Rating and an 87% Overall Performance Rating by the Colorado Department of Education (CDE). Approximately 24% of our students are identified as gifted and talented, well above the national average of 6-10% (according to the US Department of Education).

We are also one of seven schools in Colorado approved to offer additional opportunities for students pursuing college courses in the STEM fields. This is an IBM initiative known as P-TECH (Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools), to create innovative partnerships between school districts, local college(s) and high schools.

We also offer a myriad of Advanced Placement classes, as well as Concurrent Enrollment (CE), enabling students to take classes both on and off campus for college credit, while still enrolled in high school. In the Spring of 2020, we had 536 students enrolled in AP courses and 1022 CE credit hours earned. The success does not stop there as 98% of our seniors applied and were accepted to over 108 colleges in 35 different states and three countries.

Problem-Based Learning

What makes STEM School Highlands Ranch so special? It’s our unique approach to solving real-world problems, while still teaching the fundamentals that all students need to succeed in our ever-changing world. Our students are challenged to develop the essential skills necessary to be productive and valued members of a global workforce.

Elementary School students are provided with a rigorous and relevant core education that taps into the innate curiosity of each student, while integrating essential STEM skills and concepts within literacy, mathematics, social studies and science.Our classrooms come alive with relevant, problem-based learning where 21st Century Skills are embedded through the use of technology, critical thinking, and collaboration to engage the heads, hearts and hands of students in authentic and real world issues. All elementary students will participate in specials classes that include art, music, physical education, technology, engineering, and world language.

Middle School students are provided with an engaging and empowering education that incorporates essential skills and character development, with rigorous real-world education. Our students are thinkers, doers, change makers and innovators. They develop the skills of critical thinking, collaboration, safe failure and applied innovation through an exciting and challenging integrated STEM curriculum.

High School students are challenged to develop the essential soft skills necessary to be productive and valued members of the 21st Century workforce. We offer a variety of technology and computer science classes focused on programming in a variety of languages, creative applications like 3D animation/ modeling and designing, and building games. Additionally our students are able to earn industry level IT certificates by taking classes in A+, Net+, and Security+. In our engineering labs, students fine-tune their problemsolving and creative skills as they take classes in manufacturing, robotics, Computer Aided Design (CAD), digital electronics, and transportation technologies.

Real-World Application

STEM programs continue to become popular choices for students across the country. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts overall employment in the economy to grow by 7.4% between 2016 and 2026, while jobs in STEM fields are expected to grow by 10.8%, according to a January 2019 report. These projections are the highest of all occupations.

Our Career Discovery program offers students a menu of options to explore business fields in real-world settings that can potentially lead to internships, apprenticeships, or full/ part time employment after graduation and during college. Through real-world experiences, we have worked to bring schools and industry partners from all regions of the state, country and the world together to share education techniques, tactics and ideas.

Our Building Ships program is opening doors for students to connect directly with our industry partners, with short-term immersion opportunities to create connections and get hands-on experience with some of the top technology in the world. Last school year a select group of students enjoyed a week-long, fully immersive experience with the Junior Space Foundation and Lockheed Martin.

The Well-Rounded Student

Learning with us does not stop at the classroom walls. Our students have a full range of Enrichment programming at their fingertips. These opportunities include athletics, clubs, robotics, technology and other special interested. Students are eager to learn even outside the classroom, says Sara Phelps, Enrichment Director. “It’s an opportunity for students to not only discover new areas of learning, but also to make new friends, while developing their teamwork skills.”

Technology Student Association (TSA) is a national organization that gives our students the opportunity to explore science, technology, engineering, and math fields through exciting competitive events and leadership opportunities. There are a wide variety of events to prepare and compete in, including Underwater ROV to Biotechnology to Catapult Design to Fashion Design to Forensic Technology to Career Prep.

Our BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) Robotics Team empowers students to use their creativity and intelligence to build a robot from scratch. Cyber Patriots is a defensive cyber security competition, where students work in teams to discover vulnerabilities and develop remedies in an operating system that has been compromised.

Innovation and Potential

“From science and technology, to the environment and global economy, we know that the future will be full of invention and change,” Dr. Eucker said. “We believe in the unlimited potential of every child and we use the power of innovation to help every child succeed in an exponentially changing world.”

We invite families to take part in our Prospective Parent Webinar on Wednesdays from 10-11 a.m. via Zoom. This is in place of our usual tour that cannot be held due to COVID-19. If you’d like to take part in the webinar, please email info@stemk12.org to find out more information. We also accept open enrollment applications all year long. For more information about our school, please visit our website at stemk12.org or call us at 303-683-STEM (7836).