Educational instructors from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science visited Granby Elementary School kindergarteners and first graders on Tuesday, April 15 and gave students an interactive lesson meant to inspire curiosity and interest in science topics.

Museum educator and performer Amanda Avram brought an ecosystem to life inside the school using a makeshift canopy and costumes set up inside the school library. Within this canopy, chipmunk children could be seen sniffing for acorns on the forest floor, as human raccoons felt for prey within a hollowed-out log alongside other critters like birds, owls, bears and buzzing flies.

After a lesson on matching birds with their calls, Avram asked students to point to animals in the scene who used their sense of hearing. The lively students pointed mostly to the chirping birds.

This was all part of a Wild Senses Wonder Workshop where students learn how animals use their senses to survive and thrive in their habitats.

Avram said that this lesson helps serve as a jumping off point for students to learn about adaptations in nature as they move further through school. At one point during the workshop, students pretend to be spiders on their web. Other kids hang buzzing flies into a web and the spiders feel for the vibrations made by the flies, just like real spiders would do.

The workshops are designed for kindergarten through middle school students to engage in experimental, hands-on activities as they play and learn about science and nature. Additionally, these workshops incorporate teamwork, problem-solving skills and critical thinking.

Information for these programs is provided to schools by the museum, and from there the schools will typically reach out to the museum to get a program set up. There is a cost for these experiences, but the museum will provide qualifying schools with scholarships to help offset costs, according to senior grants officer Jordan Cooper.

Cooper said that these types of informal science education fulfills a niche in formal curriculum. Workshops like this one help spark curiosity in a safe environment, which can lead to students pursuing hobbies and careers in science fields.

Avram has worked as an educator performer at the museum for the past 18 years and calls informal science education her passion.

“Informal education is kind of my passion, and informal science education specifically is what I live for — really, the ability to go into schools and get kids hyped about science,” Avram said.

“It’s a special thing that not everybody gets to do, and with science education not being taught as frequently or not a lot of emphasis being put on it. I’m glad that I can be one of those people that gets into the classroom and provides a little spark for the kids, hopefully, and makes them or lets them see themselves doing science.”

By bringing museum resources directly to students, it breaks up the day-to-day for teachers and students without the challenges of bussing kids to the museum in Denver.

First grade teacher Cassandra Beck at Granby Elementary School called the workshop an “awesome opportunity.”

“Even though they couldn’t drive down to (the museum), they had a little bit of the museum come to them,” Beck said.

This visit was made possible by Ann O’Donnell, a longtime museum volunteer, and her son John O’Donnell, who established an endowment in her name — the Ann O’Donnell Endowment for Outreach and Education — which bring programs to people who are unable to attend the museum in-person.

Ann is 93 years old and has been volunteering with the museum for over 50 years. She co-founded the museum’s membership program, which has grown to nearly 50,000 member households. Today, the membership program provides an important source of revenue for the museum, according to Cooper.

Ann, her husband Canton, and John all attended the workshop in Granby to see the museum’s outreach programs in action. They are part-time residents of Grand Lake and have a long family history in the Grand Lake and Granby area.